Qantas Brings Australian Commonwealth Games Team Home

7 August 2002

Qantas' flagship 747 aircraft, Wunala Dreaming, arrived in Melbourne this morning from London with the triumphant Australian Commonwealth Games Team onboard.

Welcoming the team home was Australian Prime Minister, The Honourable John Howard and Qantas Chairman, Margaret Jackson.

Ms Jackson congratulated members of the team on their historic medal haul and noted they had showed the rest of the world the meaning of the Spirit of Australia.

"I was impressed by the diversity of events at which Australia excelled," Ms Jackson said.

"We won on water, on land and in the air. We won individual events and team events. Teenagers won and so did athletes in their 40s and 50s. And our elite disabled athletes did us proud yet again.

"Qantas continually strives for excellence and is proud to be a sponsor of our Commonwealth Games team."

Ms Jackson added that Australia had built a reputation for delivering the best sporting events in the world and that Melbourne prided itself on being the sporting capital of Australia.

"I know that Melbourne will ensure that the Commonwealth Games here in 2006 will be even better than the outstanding Games delivered by Manchester."

The Qantas association with sport in Victoria stretches back more than 45 years to the 1956 Olympic Games, when the airline carried the Olympic Flame to Melbourne.