A century of simply accepting what came

“As time went on, I just accepted it as something that would be happening,” he said.

That same philosophy has carried him through droughts, floods, round trips and 73 years beside the same woman.

Born at Rushworth Bush Nursing Hospital on August 3, 1926, Gordon was the third of four children, with older brothers Lesley and Donald and a younger sister, Dorothy.

Growing up on a share farm in Stanhope, his childhood was built around farm work.

Each day, he walked a couple of miles to Carag Carag Primary school, then straight back home to help with farm and orchard jobs.

Gordon never cared much for the classroom but after Year 8, a scholarship sent him to Rushworth Higher Elementary School.

“I only lasted about a term before I left,” he said.

He performed far better outdoors, playing football and cricket for Stanhope for many years.

When asked if he was any good, Gordon answered with the same dry humour he’s always had.

“That depends on who’s listening,” he said with a laugh.

Farming was one of the constant threads of Gordon’s life, but it wasn’t a straight road.

His wife, Dorothy, became his other constant thread after they met at a Saturday night dance in Rushworth in the early 1950s.

The two married in 1953 and settled into life on the Stanhope share farm.

They had four children: Debra, Peter – who shares the same birthday as Gordon – Leanne and Grant.

With health scares from his father in 1958, Gordon uprooted his family and moved to Melbourne to help care for him.

Four years later, his father improved and the Calley clan returned north from a stint that cost him his chance at a rural settlement block.

It was a slight setback, but one that he simply worked around.

“We bought a run-down dairy farm in Kyabram,” he said.

“I didn’t leave the farm and Dot worked with local caterers to help out.”

After seven years, Gordon decided it was time to chase something he’d always wanted.

But with three children still in school, the dream hardly seemed possible, until the Kyabram Primary School principal, a close friend, wrote out the address and phone number for a correspondence school, turning that dream into reality.

So, in 1968, he sold the farm, bought a caravan and a new car, and took his family on a trip around Australia for seven months.

“I knew what I wanted, that was to travel and see our country,” he said.

It was his proudest moment, but a trip that wasn’t one off.

After returning to Kyabram, Gordon worked at the research station for four years but knowing he “wanted to be his own boss” bought a property at Bunbartha.

He said it was a really tough two decades out there, battling floods and collapsed cattle prices.

In 1989, he and Dorothy set off on another trip, retracing the roads they toured 20 years earlier, this time without the kids.

Gordon’s instinct to keep moving stayed well into his 80s, enjoying bike rides and jogs around Kialla Lakes — at 88, he completed a 140km bike ride.

“Together with my daughter, we rode the longest rail trail down at Tallarook, through the Cheviot Tunnel,” he said.

His days now are simple, still spent beside Dorothy, mostly in her room at Shepparton Villages’ Banksia Lodge before returning to his own to sleep.

“We don’t have anything planned, the days just happen now,” he said.

A passionate Collingwood supporter with “a very black and white outlook on football”, he’s never been one to hand out advice, just the one lesson he has passed down to his own children for decades.

“It’s never as good as you think it is, and it’s never as bad as you think it is,” he said.

For 100 years, Gordon Calley has simply kept accepting what came.