Milestone: Joy Learmonth at 100 (front, centre), surrounded by some of her family members.
Former Echuca resident Joy Learmonth turned 100 on August 31 at a nursing home in Ballarat.
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Joy first moved to northern Victoria in the early 1960s when her husband Russell Learmonth (1921-1983) was appointed manager of the Kraft Foods factory in Leitchville.
Joy later lived in Campaspe Esplanade, Echuca, during the mid 1980s as at the time her youngest son, Matthew Learmonth, was a budding journalist on the Riverine Herald.
Joy was an accomplished water colour artist and oil painter, a porcelain artist and also a teacher of porcelain art for many years.
She organised several large porcelain art exhibitions in Echuca, notably an Australia-wide exhibition and conference in the mid-1980s that bought hundreds of people to the Echuca-Moama area.
Joy is also a poet with a number of published volumes of poetry under her belt.
She has five children, eight grandchildren, six great-grandchildren as well as a number of daughter- and sons-in-law.
Joy was born in Wedderburn, Victoria, on August 31, 1923, the same year that construction began on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
She went to school in a horse and buggy driven by her older sister Georgie.
There was no electricity in the house — only candles and kerosene lamps, and Coolgardie safes to keep food cool.
During World War II as a young woman, Joy worked for a time on night shift in the Coding Department of the Department of Defence at Victoria Barracks, St Kilda Rd.
All the street lights were blacked out and there were ditches all along the footpaths to jump into in case of air raids.
A group of night shift girls would meet at Flinders St Station and as there were no trams at night, would walk together along St Kilda Rd in the dark from one little light spot on the pavement to the next to reach the barracks.
Their job was to type up the code, which, Joy says, was all “gobbledygook” to them.
Joy and Russell married during WWII while Russell was home on leave. They had met years earlier when Joy was 14 and Russell 16.
After the war, Joy and Russell ran guest houses in Marysville for a time, and then moved first to the Western District and then to the Murray Valley. They raised five children. Later, Joy lived in Echuca, Woodend, Melbourne for a time, and Gisborne before moving to Ballarat.
Joy celebrated her milestone birthday with family members, residents and staff at her nursing home.
Happy birthday: Joy Learmonth turned 100 on August 31.
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