“ARE you going to come and interview me again next year,” George Hirst asked as I chatted with him in his home on the eve of his 100th birthday.
The well-loved local celebrated the momentous occasion at St Bernards Hotel on January 8, surrounded by around 80 locals and family from around the country, all keen to wish him well.
Born in Manchester in the United Kingdom, he enlisted in the army at just 17 ½ years of age where he served for four years, going to Normandy as a driver as well as two years in Palestine.
In 1949, at just 23 years of age, he boarded a ship for Australia.
“At the time Australia was desperate for people and it cost me nothing to come, so my friend and I said, ‘why not’,” he recalled.
“We had a nice sea journey over four weeks.”
It turned out to be a very fortuitous trip as he met his wife, Ivy, on the ship who was travelling to Western Australia for work.
George disembarked at Brisbane at Christmas, broke and found everything closed so he and his friend were quickly sent to a lead mine in Mt Isa.
For about nine months he corresponded by mail with Ivy until he arrived unannounced one day in Perth.
“She didn’t know I was coming and was working in a pub. I sat at a stool, and she came out carrying a tray of glasses and dropped the lot,” he laughed.
The couple left for Melbourne and in 1950 they married. Sadly, Ivy died in 2018 in Roslyn Lodge.
They raised two sons and one daughter and once they’d fled the coop George and Ivy decided to buy a caravan and left Melbourne.
“We didn’t know where we were going,” he said.
“We were at a caravan park on the coast, and I spotted and ad for a house on the mountain. The agent showed us a property on Eagle Heights which was out of our price range, but he found this place.
“We thought it was a very nice place,” he said of Tamborine Mountain.
“I love the winter up here, but once the humidity comes, I’m no good.”
He put an advertisement in the local paper for welding work, and was never out of a job, while Ivy grew and sold flowers.
George also sold avocados grown on the farm down on the Gold Coast and even now it’s not unusual to find him up a ladder picking the fruit.
He loves to be outside working on his property and enjoying his garden which he attributes to his longevity and health.
“It doesn’t worry me,” he said about turning 100.
“It’s just another birthday. Healthwise, I think I’m pretty okay.
“Ivy was into alternatives: homeopathy and natural therapies. She did what she could to avoid the doctor.
“She was a pioneer.
“I don’t go to a doctor unless it’s absolutely necessary. In my opinion half the people that go don’t need to go.”
However, his son Dave Hirst chimed in saying: “He defies what most health practitioners tell you to do.”
George gained notoriety after Cyclone Alfred when the police came to do a welfare check.
George had run out of gas, so the police delivered a gas bottle, recording the encounter and putting it on their Facebook page, giving everyone a good laugh.
Well wishes
Four generations turned up for the party, including six grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren as well as some family members who hadn’t seen each other for fifty years.
“He enjoyed it, despite shying away from people making a fuss,” son, Mike said.
Cards were read out from the Prime Minister, the Governor General, the Minister for Veteran’s Affairs and of course the King.
He also received a letter from the Pope.
The traditional fruit cake was made by George’s nephew’s wife, Julia Whinnett, who has been making special cakes for the family for decades.
