Les Roughan has seen the world change since he was born in 1923, and has lived a long and storied life.
Mr Roughan said after both his parents died during his teenage years, his brother took charge of the family farm, with Mr Roughan helping out.
‘‘My oldest brother took over the home farm, but there was no money there. Everybody was broke.
‘‘So I left school and I worked for him, on and off for about three years.
‘‘When I say off and on, when there was work to be done on the farm, I was always there,’’ he said.
Mr Roughan said with the benefit of hindsight, he was grateful for his brother and his wife for taking him in, although it did not dawn on him at the time.
‘‘I didn’t really think about that. But I think now, what a burden I would have been to my sister-in-law.
‘‘A lot of times I used to think I was getting poorly treated, but I was getting bloody well treated,’’ he said.
From there, Mr Roughan went into the Air Force during the war to work as a mechanic, and upon returning home began farming once again.
Mr Roughan has lived his life trying his best to support the local community, and had plenty to show for it, he said.
‘‘I have 10 life memberships of different committees that I’ve served on, so I’m pretty proud of that, and it all started from being absolutely nobody,’’ he said.
Mr Roughan now resides in the Resthaven Retirement Village, and loves it.
‘‘I’m very happy to be here in this setup. It couldn’t be better, it’s not possible for them to treat me better,’’ he said.
Mr Roughan said for his life, it all came down to the support from those closest to him.
‘‘I realised how much my wife and family — I have five boys and two girls — how much they supported me and everything I’d done.
‘‘I’ve got reason to be a happy man,’’ he said.
