Before the war airline travel was very expensive too much for many and mostly big business and government paid flights were the norm.
I seem to recall a F28 flght Carnarvon - Perth return in 1980's at around $800 ($1,700 in today money maybe).
Look at Darwin - Gove mainly government and big business mainly sector around $800. Take the mine out and the government wont go much, will be no flights.
Before the war rosters were good no they were great for the pilots, but several were not happy at the deal they had. Today is a result of stupidity of passed forced on the new and will take many more years to get better rosters if ever. My memory is the pilots of that era got a far bigger pay rise than they asked for in return for working more for it and they agreed - bring on the regulation rule book on duty - Oh look Redeye works well and within duty times.