Fighting fit at 105!

By Paul Dunlop
PAKENHAM’S oldest resident is fighting fit and celebrated his 105th birthday on Boxing Day.
Noel Gardner lives at Meadowvale Retirement Village where he is regarded as an icon by staff and residents.
Mr Gardner is one of the oldest people in Victoria.
He was the guest of honour at a recent party at the retirement village and passed up the offer of a wheelchair ride from his room to the dining hall.
“He said wheelchairs are ‘only for old people’,” Meadowvale Retirement Centre manager May Croxford said.
“He walked all the way down.”
Mr Gardner said he was very happy in Pakenham. He has lived at the centre for almost 20 years.
Mrs Croxford said Mr Gardner was in remarkable health.
“His hearing is not too good but otherwise he is in incredible shape,” Ms Croxford.
“(Bass MP) Ken Smith shook his hand and could not believe how strong his handshake was.
“He doesn’t like a fuss but I think he enjoyed the day. He said ‘Why do this, I’m not important’, but we think he is important.”
Mr Gardner was born at Warragul on 26 December, 1900. He was the youngest of four children to James and Elizabeth Anne Gardner.
He was educated initially at the Buln Buln State School and the Nilma State School before going on to the Warragul Agricultural High School.
At 16, he attended All Saints Grammar School in St Kilda, which was close to the home of his grandparents Mark and Jane Lines.
On leaving school he became a jackeroo at Marsden Station in western New South Wales. This was the head station of a group of surrounding properties totalling more than 1000 square miles.
Sheep and wool was the core business of the stations and in those days the bales of wool were carried to Broken Hill by camel train.
At the end of 1919, Noel returned to the family farm ‘Oatlands’ at Nilma North where he worked with his father and brother Wilfred until 1923 when their father died.
The two sons carried on the farm for a few months and then Noel and his mother moved to Glenaladale near Bairnsdale in East Gippsland.
They returned about two years later and continued to work with beef cattle and sheep.
In February 1944, Noel married Irene McMoll who he met in Melbourne.
They were married at St John’s Anglican Church in Toorak and then settled on the family farm.
They successfully farmed together for 35 years. Irene died in 1979 and is buried in the Warragul Cemetery.
In her memory and as a memorial to her church work, Noel had a stained glass window installed in St Paul’s Anglican Church in Warragul.
Noel carried on the farm singlehandedly until July, 1984 when, with the property being held in his family for 100 years, he sold it.
For a time he lived at Drouin with his niece Jean Kilby and her husband, then, being of a very independent nature, Noel decided to take an apartment in Narre Warren.
At aged 85 years, he took an extended bus trip around Northern Australia before moving into Meadowvale in 1988.
Mr Gardner’s history was compiled by Trish Laker, editor of Meadowvale News.