NSW man celebrates his 110th by becoming Australia’s oldest person

Australia’s oldest man has celebrated his 110th birthday.

Born in 1912, Frank Mawer turned 110 on August 15 and is officially the country’s oldest person.

Mr Mawer, who lives with his family on the NSW south coast, spent his birthday weekend with family and friends, both in person and over Zoom.

His son, Phillip, was asked about his father’s secret to living a long life on 2GB radio.

“That’s a hard one,” he said. “He has his own ideas, but he’s getting a lot of support.”

Frank had reluctantly agreed to leave his home in Gymea to live with family in Tilba, but his son said he was now going strong.

Mr Mawer has lived through two pandemics*, losing his brother to the Spanish flu*.

He was married for 70 years before losing his beloved wife to breast cancer in 2012.

Australia’s oldest man has six children, 13 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren.

The previous record holder, Dexter Kruger, died at the age of 111 in May last year.

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OF THE PAST 110 YEARS

1912: THE TITANIC

Frank Mawer has seen a lot in the past 110 years. But by being born on 15 August, 1912, he actually missed the biggest news event of that year by exactly four months: the tragic sinking of luxury cruise ship the Titanic, which went down after striking an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland in the early hours of 15 April, 1912.

1914: WORLD WAR I

Also known as the Great War, WWI began on July 28, 1914, with the assassination* of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Australia’s involvement began when Britain and Germany went to war on 4 August 1914.

The dawn of the “ANZAC legend” was 25 April 1915, when members of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) landed on Gallipoli in Turkey with troops from New Zealand, Britain, and France, but they endured* eight months of fighting at Gallipoli.

The war ended with Germany’s surrender on November 11, 1918.

For Australia, the First World War remains the costliest conflict in terms of deaths and casualties*. From a population of fewer than five million, 416,809 men enlisted and more than 60,000 were killed.

1920: AUSTRALIAN AVIATION

Australia’s civil aviation industry was arguably born when Qantas (Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services) was established in Queensland in 1920, the year the Commonwealth Government passed the Air Navigation Act and called for tenders from flight operators to undertake mail runs on particular routes. With Australia’s enormous size and its South Pacific location, civil aviation changed the country’s fortunes forever.

1939: WORLD WAR II

Sparked by Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, the driving force of the Second World War was fascism*. Led by Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party – better known as the Nazi Party – Jewish people, Communists, liberals, and pacifists were especially targeted, leading to the horror of the Holocaust*. Six million Jews across German-occupied Europe were systematically* rounded up and murdered between 1941 and 1945. The war ended soon after Hitler’s downfall, when Japan formally surrendered.

1969: MAN ON THE MOON

Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins become the first humans in history to land on the moon on 20 July 1969.

With more than half a billion people watching on television, Armstrong climbed down the ladder to the surface of the moon and uttered the immortal words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

1973: FIRST MOBILE PHONE

On April 3, 1973, Motorola engineer Martin Cooper made the first-ever mobile phone call on a portable device that weighed over a kilo, offered 30 minutes of talk time and needed to be recharged for 10 hours.

1975: FIRST PERSONAL COMPUTER

The first ever PC, the MITS Altair 8800, came as a kit that needed to be put together with other components.

Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Paul Allen wrote a BASIC compiler for the Altair and formed “Micro-soft”.

Apple entered the scene in 1976, when tech legends Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak designed the Apple I. The rest, as they say, is history.

1989: HELLO, WORLD WIDE WEB

While the birth of the internet dates to 1969 California, it was not until 1989 that the World Wide Web (www) came along.

British scientist Tim Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web (that’s what “www” means) in 1989 while working at CERN laboratory (European Council for Nuclear Research). On 30 April 1993, CERN put the World Wide Web software in the public domain and later released an open licence that allowed the web to really take off.

The web has changed the world as we know it forever.

GLOSSARY

pandemic: rapid worldwide spread of a new disease, affecting many people at the same time

Spanish flu: this type A influenza went around the globe between 1918-1920, causing an estimate 20-40 million deaths

assassination: murder of someone important or famous

endured: experienced, lived through, suffered through

casualties: people hurt or killed in a war or other destructive event

fascism: at odds with liberal democracy, fascism promotes an extreme nationalism via a political philosophy, movement, or regime that prizes nation and often race above the individual

Holocaust: the genocide of European Jewish people during World War II; known as Shoah in Hebrew, meaning “catastrophe”

systematically: according to a fixed, organised plan, methodically, deliberately

EXTRA READING

Meet Australia’s oldest ever man

World’s oldest person dies at 119

New official record for world’s oldest person

QUICK QUIZ

How did Mr Mawer lose his brother?

How many years was Mr Mawer married to his beloved wife?

When was QANTAS established and why was civil aviation so significant for Australia?

What did astronaut Neil Armstrong say as the first human being to set foot on the moon?

How many years passed from the first days of the internet to the creation of web?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

1. What’s the perfect present?

What would be the perfect present to give someone on their 110th birthday? Describe the present and the reasons why you would choose it.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity

Curriculum Links: English; Personal and Social Capability

2. Extension

What do you think life will be like when you are 110 years old? Write a story or description of a typical day in your life when you are 110 years old.

Time: allow 45 minutes to complete this activity

Curriculum Links: English; Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY

The things I have seen!

Can you imagine living 110 years?! Some of you might be thinking, “That’s so old, I wonder if he was around with the dinosaurs…?” Well, not quite, I’m afraid, but… imagine what he would have seen in all those years.

Imagine you are Frank and reflect back on something important that has happened in your life, but pitch it as if it was decades ago - even if it happened last week.

What is a memory or moment from your life that stands out to you? Share it with your future great-grandchildren, but write it as if you are sitting in front of them.

Don’t forget to use your VCOP skills to edit and uplevel the piece to ensure it captures the audience’s attention.