Heather Blackstock

Dawn Till Dusk Heather Blackstock

I was asked last year by Ruth Holmes, who is a member of the Historical Society in Dorrigo, if I would do a biography on my father for the Dorrigo Historical Society. I agreed and have not long finished writing it. Since I had spent much time with my dad in my early years, I was interested in his achievements and good deeds and wanted to portray his charitable character as best I could through telling stories about how, as a family man, he educated himself and his children and how he coped having experienced times of adversity through thick and thin. He was a joy and inspiration to all those who knew him, and although he enjoyed helping the family and others, his life soon became full of good deeds. In 1912, at the age of seventeen, George Winkley sought a contract to carry mail and passengers from Taree to Grafton, which route had no connecting railway. With his mother's support, he was able to purchase a Studebaker car from America. Since he had a driver's license, his agent allowed him to go to Sydney wharf and drive it off the ship. How proud and responsible he must have felt doing that! It was the first of its kind on the North Coast, with a self-starter and electric lights (p4). Later a partnership was formed with Ernst and Winkley, and the car served as a touring car on weekends to transport notability around the country (p5).