14/09/2026
From the bush to the city, Lorna celebrates 100 years!
A former part-time jockey who worked on cattle stations in remote Queensland is one of the state’s newest centenarians.
Lorna Wing, a resident of the Carinity Hilltop aged care home in Brisbane, celebrated her 100th birthday on 13 September.
She was born in Townsville in 1926 and grew up on the Van Rook and Lorraine Stations in the gulf country of north-west Queensland.
As a young woman she worked as a bookkeeper on Lorraine Station, a farming property located around 400km north of Mount Isa and Cloncurry. Lorna’s favourite memories of her youth are enjoying bush life on the beef cattle stations, including going horse riding. In fact, Lorna could ride horses fast.
“Mum rode as a jockey a few times as a young woman, mostly in her late-teens and 20s. It was usually at country race meets in the gulf country and Western Australia,” Lorna’s daughter Donna Doyle said.
Donna said her mother is a “very strong and resilient” woman, especially when she was living and working in the outback including at Walhallow Station in the Northern Territory.
During World War II, Lorna was a plane spotter looking for enemy aircraft flying around – and she reported on them.
Lorna met Bob Wing, who was working as head stockman on Lorraine Station, and they fell in love. The couple married in Townsville in 1954 and later welcomed four children – two daughters and two sons. The Wing family has since expanded to include 13 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Family from as far away as Scotland, Darwin, Melbourne, Blackall, Emerald and Clermont helped Lorna celebrate her milestone 100th birthday at Carinity Hilltop, where she has lived for three years.
Carinity
