Charles & Ivy PrellPrint Page

The stained glass window commemorates Charles and Ivy Prell. Charles Prell died in 1946. 

Charles Prell researched flock management and pasture improvement.  Ivy Prell provided help to the community and country women. 

Charles Prell was a well known pastoralist who bought Gundowringa, about 4500 acres (1821 ha) near Crookwell, New South Wales; later purchases added 2500 acres (1012 ha). In 1916 Prell had bought two rams and 110 ewes of pure Lincoln-Merino blood from H. T. Little in New Zealand, and established a Corriedale stud which he ran with his son Harold Fairbairn. The flock was self-contained except for the purchase of three Australian-bred sires in 1930, 1931 and 1940. Severe culling was practised to ensure correct type and the stud won many prizes at the Sydney Sheep Show, including the grand champion ram five times in 1934-39. Prell was president of the State branch of the Australian Corriedale Sheepbreeders' Association and of its federal council and a founding director of Goulburn Woollen Mills Ltd.

During the Depression Prell strongly advocated closer settlement, urging State and Federal governments to settle groups of young men on 200-acre (81 ha) blocks for five years to improve the pasture and learn progressive farming methods; they should then be offered individual ownership on thirty-year terms. Active in community affairs, he was a Freemason, foundation president of the Rotary Club of Goulburn, president of Goulburn Agricultural, Pastoral and Horticultural Society for seventeen years, and a director of Goulburn Pastures Protection Board. A rower in his youth, he later worked for the local cricket association and golf club, and supported the Junior Farmer Movement. He was appointed O.B.E. in 1937.

Charles Prell Article 1955

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