Boroondara’s centenarians celebrated

It’s not every day that you get to celebrate a 100th birthday, but for 17 members of our community, the Boroondara Seniors Festival was an occasion to celebrate a collective 1,700 years!

Much loved Channel 9 announcer Peter Smith OAM led our annual Centenarians Luncheon at the Hawthorn Arts Centre to celebrate the incredible lives and contributions of people aged over 100 years in our city. 

Society has dramatically changed since our centenarians first took their first steps in the world, with technology, medicine and education transforming quality of life. 

It’s this transformation that Peter Smith’s own father, Les Smith, has witnessed over the last 103 years. 

Before calling Boroondara home, Les was raised in a weatherboard home in St Kilda, Victoria. Home life was very different to the lifestyle Les enjoys today, where central heating took the form of a caste-iron fireplace and provisions (including milk, butter, bread and ice) were delivered by a horse-drawn cart. 

Les remembered that these essentials, like milk, were often left hanging exposed in a bucket over the fence and he was quick to remind his peers at the luncheon: “no one ever died from the germs!”