Community
5 September, 2025
A long and happy life
A BORN and bred Camperdown local is looking back on her quiet but content life as her 102nd birthday approaches.
Elsie McKenzie continues to live independently in the home she has lived in since she and her late husband retired from farm life, receiving assistance from in-home help.
Mrs McKenzie was born in Cobden and lived in the Curdies River area before her father moved the family to Weerite when she was six years old.
“We lived there for about nine years and went to school from there,” Mrs McKenzie said.
“We walked across paddocks for about four miles.
“We shifted from there when my father moved up the road a bit further to another farm.
“When I turned 12, I was put in the cow yards to milk cows by hand – in those days, you’d milk by hand then you’d go home to get ready for school then come back and do the same again at night.”
Mrs McKenzie had four brother and four sisters, all of whom went to Pomborneit North School while her father worked on farms in the area.
She said she and her siblings used to play in waterholes as they walked to school – something that is not as common today.
“We’d take our shoes and socks off and walk in the Jack Frost on the grass – we were tough kids, and we had to be,” Mrs McKenzie said.
“I left school at 14 – you left school at 14 in those days, then you went to high school.
“I didn’t go to high school because I had to work at home.
“I had to make the bread - there was a big family of us, and we used to have homemade bread all the time.
“We didn’t have many idle moments to play around, but we could get out and have a game of hide and seek with neighbours – we’d all come together and have fun over the weekends.”
Mrs McKenzie has seen 24 Australian Prime Ministers in her time, as well as the reigns of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth II and current King Charles II.
She has also seen the impacts of World War Two on life in Australia, where money became tight and coupons were used for everyday needs.
“We battled on and we had coupons in that time to buy everything,” Mrs McKenzie said.
“You had coupons to buy your food, coupons to buy your petrol – anything you wanted to have, you had to have a book of coupons.
“When they ran out, you went without until you got the next lot sent to you from the government.”
Mrs McKenzie married in 1941 and had three children – two daughters and a son.
She said she retired when she was 65 and her husband was 66, moving into Camperdown.
“We used to walk in this town when we first moved here – I don’t think there is a part of town we haven’t walked, even up the mount and to the park,” Mrs McKenzie said.
“I’ve had a good life since we retired – we used to go on bus trips around Australia at different times and enjoyed all that.
“A few years back I joined the Senior Citizens Club in Camperdown and Cobden, and I still go to them once a month.
“We’d either come together for a meal or go on a bus trip and I quite enjoy that.
“I’ve had a good life – I never did anything major like a lot of people, but I’ve enjoyed my life.”
Mrs McKenzie said things had changed a lot over her lifetime, including spending a weekend dancing at another person’s house.
“We used to go to other people’s house of a weekend – us farmers – and we’d dance and play music,” she said.
“The only music we ever had in those days was either a wireless or a gramophone – we’d buy the records and dance to them until all hours of the morning.
“We used to have a lot of fun, and it was clean fun.
“You can’t do that today – you can’t go and have a night out and come home and be sober.”
Other changes included the transition from candles and kerosene lamps to electricity and product costs.
Mrs McKenzie said she remembered a time where a bag of musk sticks only cost a penny.
“We had to watch what we spent in those days – it was pounds, shillings and pence,” she said.
“When we were kids, if mum and dad gave us sixpence to go and buy lollies or something, we’d think we were made of money.
“We used to have a lot of fun as kids – counting our pennies, spending them and knowing who had more than the other.”
Growing up, Mrs McKenzie’s family could never afford a car.
To this day, she has never driven a car – instead opting to walk and having ridden a push bike into Camperdown in the past.
Mrs McKenzie has also given back to her community, working at the Sunnyside op shop for 30 years before she stepped back when COVID began.
She said she has been enjoying her life, filling in her time with word searches and reading anything she can get her hands on.
“I’ve had good health all my life – I just live here and do what I can,” Mrs McKenzie said.
“I see a lot of my friends who pop in and say hello, so I can’t wish for any more.
“I’ve been very lucky with my life, I’ve got good neighbours and my son lives near the football oval.”
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