William George Prest (2 April 1926 – 8 December 2012) was a member of the Queensland Legislative Assembly for the Labor Party from 1976 until 1992, former Gladstone Harbour Board member and once

Gladstone City Council The City of Gladstone is a former local government area in central Queensland, Australia. It covered the urban locality of Gladstone and parts of the surrounding area. History Following the report of the Local Government Reform Commission re ...

mayor.

Early life

Prest was born in

Longreach, Queensland Longreach is a town and a locality in the Longreach Region, Queensland, Australia. It is the administrative centre of the Longreach Regional Council, which was established in 2008 as a merger of the former Longreach, Ilfracombe, and Isisford s ...

. In 1970, he stood for local council elections and was elected, he later became Gladstone's deputy mayor in 1975.

Political career

After being elected he served as Shadow Minister Tourism, Marine Services and Fisheries until December 1977, then Shadow Minister for Main Roads, Shadow Minister for Local Government and Valuation and Shadow Minister for Transport. In his last term in the Queensland Parliament, Prest caused controversy when he made a racist slur against former state National Party Aboriginal Affairs Minister and future Federal MP Bob Katter when he called him a gin jockey. Prest however was not publicly disciplined and retained his position as whip but the controversy did see him being taken about out of the limelight of public life. The Gladstone Port Access Bridge was renamed the Bill Prest Bridge in 2010.

Personal life

Prest died, aged 86, in

Gladstone, Queensland Gladstone () is a coastal city in the Gladstone Region, Queensland, Australia. Gladstone has an urban population of 34,703, and together with Boyne Island and Tannum Sands, had an estimated population of 50,317 at August 2021. This urban area co ...

Robert Schwarten Robert Evan Schwarten (born 6 October 1954) is an Australian politician. Early life Schwarten was born in Rockhampton, and is married with two sons. Before his entry into politics, he was a teacher and a ministerial advisor to the Deputy Pr ...

Liz Cunningham Elizabeth Anne Cunningham is an Australian politician. She was an independent member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland from 1995 to 2015, representing the electorate of Gladstone. A conservative MLA in a traditionally Labor district, Cu ...

, deputy mayor Matt Burnett and mayor Gail Sellers attended his funeral to pay tribute. Prest was survived by his wife Patricia, son Darryl Prest and daughters Patricia Hick and Liz Fallon.

References

1926 births 2012 deaths Members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Queensland {{Australia-Labor-Queensland-MP-stub