Community
1 October, 2025
George turns 102
AFTER 102 years and going strong, George Cavey shares the keys to a long, happy life in Cobden with his wife Miriam.
With his 102nd birthday on the horizon, Mr Cavey reflected on his life and long history with the district, having lived in Cobden for over 20 years and frequenting the area as a child.
“I’ve been coming to Camperdown since I was five years old so I know Camperdown pretty well,” he said.
“I had an aunt and uncle living up here.
“Mum used to put my brother and I on the train at Spencer Street and go in the carriages and say, ‘Can you make sure these two little boys get off at Camperdown please’.
“Every second Christmas we used to come up here.”
Mrs Cavey was originally from Camperdown, and they celebrated 40 years of marriage together this year.
Mr Cavey’s keen interest in mechanics brought him to the miniature railway in Cobden, where the pair decided to settle.
In his earlier years, Mr Cavey was in the army, and said it was a letter from home which ended his service earlier than intended.
“I was a machine-gunner in the army,” he said.
“I would’ve been in Papa New Guinea only the boat didn’t turn up.
“My brother was already in New Guinea, and my mum and dad were getting on in years.
“They had a lot of trouble and I happened to get a letter one day that there were problems at home so they put me out of the army on compassion charges.
“It’s a bit hard when you train with all your mates and they go and you don’t, but if I went I probably would still be in New Guinea.”
Decades on, Mr Cavey said he still has his driver’s licence, can still read without his glasses, and is a self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades.
“After I got out of the army, I was carpentering for quite a while,” he said.
“I’ve always been interested in mechanics and always done it, as a kid even.”
He said one of the keys to his long life was that he never smoked or drank, and he always looked on the bright side of life.
“As I said to one person, mum bought all my parts from Myers, not Coles – more expensive parts,” he said.
“I’m always happy in my life now, as far as that goes.
“The main thing is you don’t look at the miserable side of things all the time. Look on the bright side.
“There’s plenty of things to worry about, but it doesn’t help worrying about them all.
“I always look on the happy side as much as I can.”
While Mr Cavey is taking three medications now, for most of his life, he didn’t take any at all – which Mrs Cavey said she thought was key to his longevity.
“If any doctor put him on any tablet when he felt crook he just didn’t take it,” she said.
“He doesn’t use a walker, and he has walking sticks but he doesn’t use them.
“We just take each day as it comes. They just come and go.”
Mr Cavey enjoys gardening, especially the begonias he grew once upon a time, and said he enjoyed travelling around Australia with Mrs Cavey.
“We had a four-wheel drive and bought a camping trailer and we saw quite a bit of Australia,” he said.
“It was great. We’ve had a pretty good life – not much money, but we struggled through it.”
Mr Cavey said all in all, he was happy to reach 102 and would look forward to each new day.
“In all, I suppose I’ve had a pretty good life,” he said.
“I’ve never had any real sicknesses.
“I had a heart bypass around 30-odd years ago.
“Apart from that, it’s good.”
Read More: Cobden, Camperdown