Dawson to face NSW court for wife's death

Lynette Dawson's family is hoping for justice after the missing Sydney woman's former husband faces a NSW court charged with her murder.

Chris Dawson, 70, was arrested on a warrant and hauled before a Queensland court on Wednesday almost four decades after his wife was last seen alive.

His extradition to NSW was granted and he is expected to be put on a plane and flown to Sydney on Thursday morning and then formally charged with his wife's 1982 murder.

"We've been waiting for 36 years for something like this to happen," Ms Dawson's niece Renee Simms told Ten Network on Wednesday.

"For it to finally happen it almost doesn't seem real yet to me."

Dawson, a former Newtown Jets rugby league player, has long denied involvement in her death after podcast 'The Teacher's Pet' thrust the case back into the public spotlight earlier this year.