Hector Thomas Wood

He was one of three children, with an older brother Doug and sister Jean May, and attended the local school in Duke Street.

[4] Hector and his friends kept themselves amused during school holidays with pranks such as lobbing a pomegranate into the funnel of the steam train that went through the Coorinja property.

The railway had been opened in January 1888 and ran from Clackline Junction to Newcastle, renamed Toodyay in 1910, with seven stations or sidings for the farms including Coorinja.

A more practical and rewarding past time for Hector and his mates was the shooting of ring-neck parrots, called "28s".

He was only 15 but was required to do a man's job tending the vineyards, clearing land and grubbing out the notorious York Road poison plant (Gastrolobium calycinum).

Hector and Joy had four children, three daughters, Julie, Elizabeth and Virginia, and a son Michael who now runs Coorinja.^2 The years following the war were remembered as wonderful times with many social and sporting activities.

Hector played cricket (with his left hand though he was right-handed), football and badminton and became a life member of the Toodyay Tennis Club.

Under Hector's management Coorinja continued to flourish as a winery with a reputation for its fine table and dessert wines.

Hector also had a keen interest in the natural environment and reminisced about the plentiful wildflowers and native fauna before the serious depredations of rabbits and feral animals.

"[6] In 1979 Hector and his contemporary Wally Chitty (1919-2008), who owned the Moscow Farm property, made a submission to the "System 6 Study" on behalf of the Toodyay Council.