Henry “Harry” Sanderson turned 100 on June 2.
Photo by
Bree Harding
After a century ‘earthside’, a working life of hard labour and many games of footy behind him, Henry “Harry” Sanderson’s joints are still agile enough to pedal his beloved red trike down the street to visit his friends daily.
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Mr Sanderson, who remarkably lives independently in his Shepparton home at 100 years old, says the secret to his long life is in his genes.
“I’ve got my mother’s genes,” Mr Sanderson said.
Born on June 2, 1924, in Kilcunda — on the Bass Coast between Melbourne and Phillip Island — Mr Sanderson was the third of four children.
He had two older brothers, who have sadly passed, and one younger sister who still lives near their hometown, in Wonthaggi.
At age 17, Mr Sanderson began working in the mines at Kilcunda, where he spent 10 years. He then moved to Ballarat to work in the mines there, where he met his future wife, Lorna, after working with her brother.
The pair courted for 12 months before moving to the Goulburn Valley when Lorna got a job at the cannery and were married in Melbourne on August 11, 1956.
Mr Sanderson described his late wife, who he lost in 2003, as “a ripper” and fondly remembers their wedding on Flinders St, with a Jaguar sports car and “a bloody good meal”.
When the couple arrived in Shepparton, more than 70 years ago, Mr Sanderson found employment with the SEC (which later became Powercor), he explains, while pointing to the concrete power poles in sight.
“I was a bit lucky, because the boss was pretty old and retiring, so I put in for his job and got it, and that’s where I was for 33 years,” Mr Sanderson said.
Of all the jobs he’s done, he said working for the SEC was his favourite.
“I looked after them and they looked after me,” Mr Sanderson said.
He retired in 1989, when retirement at age 65 was enforced, but he continued to work hard cutting trees for firewood and welding, as that was something he enjoyed.
“I used to love welding and making stuff,” Mr Sanderson said.
“I made that fence out there, that carport, that TV stand — no permits needed.
“I used to make everything, all those handrails out there, letterboxes for family and friends.”
He said when he moved to the north Shepparton home he still lives in today, he could see nothing but orchards and an old house that was a grocery store in the distance.
Now he’s surrounded by other housing estates, businesses and recreational facilities as far as the eye can see.
At 100 years of age, Shepparton’s Harry Sanderson still rides his trike daily down the street to visit friends.
Photo by
Bree Harding
Mr Sanderson has outlived a couple of the four children (including twins) he fathered.
He is also stepfather to two, grandfather to 11, great-grandfather to nine and great-great-grandfather to four, who are spread all over the place.
Family and friends celebrated his milestone with him at the Sherbourne Terrace for lunch on his birthday earlier this month.
Granddaughter Brenda Milne said she chose the venue because that was her grandfather’s favourite knock-off watering hole during his working life.
“I drank there for 33 years,” Mr Sanderson said.
Mr Sanderson, who took up brewing his own beer in retirement, used to make a batch each fortnight for himself and to share with friends.
The old fridge he used to store it in is still running now.
“That fridge would be 130 years old and it’s still going,” Mr Sanderson said.
“They don’t make them like that now; it’s bloody junk they make now.”
Maybe the answer to his longevity is in his mother’s genes. Or maybe, like his trusty old beer fridge, they just don’t build ‘em like they used to.
