Woodley and Dorothy Smith

Woodley and Dorothy Smith

Born 1930 and 1938

Harden, NSW

“Half a loaf is better than none at all”.

Waiting out on the veranda was Woodley and his wife Dorothy. As the birds were singing, Woodley sat patiently in the warm sun, while Dorothy greeted us from the door. The couple were from Harden, a township in the Hilltops Region of New South Wales.

Woodley and Dorothy were married back in 1959. For them, their wedding day was one of the greatest and most memorable days of their lives. It was also one of Woodley’s most rebellious moments, as he had married in an Anglican Church but come from a Catholic family.

Together, the couple had 5 children and 17 grandchildren! Of course, life now is very different to when Woodley and Dorothy were children. They told me about how clothes used to be made out of calico bags, and apple paper was used to roll cigarettes. They believe that today’s society is much busier than the younger days and there isn’t a lot of time spent with family anymore.

125 years ago, Woodley’s grandfather Percy selected 40 acres of land through the Robertson Land Act of 1860. Since then, Woodley’s family has farmed and expanded their land. Woodley and Dorothy are both very proud community members, they’ve been involved in the schools’ P&C, Meals on Wheels and The Show Society. Their eldest son Neil is even the Mayor of Junee, at the time I met.

The two of them have very fond childhood memories. For Dorothy, she loved Christmas time. Usually, her family couldn’t afford to buy ice cream, but during Christmas there was ‘penny ice cream’. Her mother would place presents in an old stocking and there would always be a little crytalised lolly in the shape of a pig right at the bottom. For Woodley, he has great memories of times spent pushing his brother down the hill in the billy cart and the time his Dad bought a 1928 model A Ford car.