'Old Fords never die' says owner of one of the country's biggest and most remote private collections
Updated
An 80-year-old man who owns one of the largest and most geographically remote collections of Ford cars in Australia says he is not ready to hang up his tools just yet.
Tom Prior lives in Chillagoe, a tiny historic mining town, about three hours' drive from Cairns in far-north Queensland.
Beneath an enormous roof of galvanised iron, Mr Prior has put together a stunning collection of restored Fords.
There are more than 30 pristine cars and trucks, from a Model A to a plastic-protected, red-trimmed white 1970 XW Ford Falcon GT 351c, built in Australia.
Outside, on the dirt driveway, there are hundreds more rusting relics, ready for some loving.
Mr Prior, who was the BP agent in the town for decades and also worked in the trucking industry, said he fell in love with Fords as a child, when his father bought the first five-tonne Ford V8 truck in the late 1930s.
"One of my earliest memories is sitting on Dad's knee when he drove the truck around, " Mr Prior said.
Among the collection is a 1928 Model A with a polished timber tray. The engine has a label saying it was built in Canada.
He also owns a red-and-white 1965 Shelby Mustang and a 1940s brown Ford Pilot sedan, but his car of choice to drive around town is a dark blue 1946 V8 Super Delux coupe ute.
There is also a 1958 Ford F8000, a left-hand-drive Ford jeep and a 1925 Ford Model T.
Mr Prior said he loved Fords because they were built to last.
"Old Fords never die," he said.
A world-wide tourist destination
A visitor book in his shed is filled with comments from people from all over the world, many of them Ford enthusiasts who have travelled specifically to Chillagoe to see his collection.
Mr Prior said the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit had offered him a free trip to America but he had turned it down.
"I'm too busy here," he said.
Mr Prior said he had received offers in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for some of his cars, but "he's not interested".
"Some of them, I've said, 'You got half-a-million dollars in your pocket?'"
Mr Prior said he had no intention of giving up the tools either.
"I'll be here until the day I die," he said.
Topics: motor-sports, history, offbeat, human-interest, chillagoe-4871
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