The following extract is from a longer story written by Chris Woodland whose father, also a Chris Woodland, was a timber inspector for the NSW Government Railways stationed at Taree during the 1940s.
“Only my parents would have a greater influence on my early life than Guy Prior. We lived in Taree at 120a Victoria Street and Guy and Dot Prior rented a house only a couple of blocks away. At the time (1942) Guy was working at the Peter’s milk factory at Chatham.
Guy Uriel Prior was born in 1906 at Albion Park on the south coast of New South Wales.1 His family moved to the Hunter Valley where he became a well-known roughrider, winning at least one blue ribbon for his buckjumping ability.2 It could have been his horsemanship and accompanying no-nonsense manner that attracted a beautiful redheaded lady who was to become his beloved ‘little Dottie’. Guy and Margaret Dorothy Horadam were married in West Maitland in 1937.3
The Priors moved to Taree and after an incident at the milk factory, Guy decided to leave to become a share-farmer at Wherrol Flat and later at Cundle Plains.4 Life for a share farmer was a hard and poor paying one. In the early 1950s, the Priors eventually moved to the Hunter Valley where they bought their own dairy farm near Vacy5…”
To read more of this interesting story including events on the farms at Wherrol Flat and Cundle Plains, the sad personal life of Guy and Dot, and the influence Guy Prior had on Chris’ life click here.
Author: Chris Woodland
References:
1 NSW BDM, Birth Index for Guy U Prior, 1906, No. 10482/1906.
2 Newcastle Sun, 18 September 1925, 8.
3 NSW BDM, Marriage Index for Guy Urial Prior and Margaret Dorothy Horadam, 1937, No. 5376/1937.
4 Manning River Times and Advocate for the Northern Coast Districts of NSW, 14 Dec 1949, 2.
5 Ancestry.com.au, 1958 electoral roll Paterson, Gresford, Guy Uriel and Margaret Prior, Fisher’s Hill, Vacy dairy farmer.
