Folks,
I should have been a little more precise in my phraseology. I referred to "colonial routes", I should have said "Imperial" route, as dictated by the UK Colonial Office ( and maybe that should be the Colonial and Commonwealth Office -- don't take me to task, I am not a historian).
Of course, at the time, many Commonwealth Governments looked down their nose at US airlines, being private, as opposed to nationalized industries, much the political preference of the day. This was the period when the remaining public shares in Qantas were purchased by the Commonwealth.
Not entirely thread drift, but all non-UK manufactured aircraft brought into Australia were subject to a 7.5% British Preferential Tariff ----- the pommy manufacturer only had to state they "could" build a competitive aircraft (which they always did say) for the tariff to be applied. This nonsense lasted into B727 days, and would you believe, even applied to military aircraft. DoD or whatever it was called at the time had to pay Customs and Excise 7.5% on all the Neptunes and early Hercules --- what a nonsense exercise --- a transfer from one Can'tberra set of books to another.
Re. the UK manufacturers not building for the market, the honorable exception was the BAC-111, which was built to a specification from a (Gasp!! Horror!! off with their heads) private enterprise organization, British United Airlines, and good old Freddy Laker.
At one stage, unions were refusing to build Viscounts for "private orders", ie: Eagle and BUA.
Tootle pip!!