Catherina van der Linden, Australia’s Oldest Person, is Turning 111

Australia’s oldest living person, Catherina van der Linden, turns 111 later this week. Mrs van der Linden lives in Southern Cross Care’s West Beach Residential Care home in South Australia and will celebrate her 111th birthday on Saturday, August 26.

Catherina credits her outstanding longevity to her active lifestyle, which still includes twice weekly gym sessions and regular walks.

Southern Cross Care’s healthy ageing approach enables staff at West Beach Residential Care to support Mrs van der Linden with a tailored exercise program delivered in the on-site Health and Wellness Centre.

It’s the exercise program that Mrs van der Linden says keeps her fit and healthy, so she can continue to enjoy life.

“I push myself sometimes when I’m getting a bit tired and I think it’s about time to do something to yourself to see that you still have that energy that you had before,” Catherina says.

“I still go on the bike, sometimes for 10 minutes and that is a long time to spend on the bike.”

Catherina’s oldest daughter, Mariella Hocking, says, “She really does like exercising and she likes walking. It’s not a surprise but I’m really pleased about it, I’m really chuffed that she still likes to do that.”

“Mum had one aunt who also lived to 110 but all her brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, all lived only to their 60s and early 70s, so there’s a freaky gene there somewhere in the family I think.”

West Beach Residential Care Manager, Catherine Willoughby, says Mrs van der Linden is a role model of healthy ageing for all the home’s staff and residents.

“Catherina is an inspiration to all of us, she’s still doing regular walks around the facility, opens the exit doors and around she goes, we’ve actually got a couple of other new residents that have started doing the same routine,” Catherine says.

“She loves the gym, she goes to the gym two or three times a week. “I think it’s amazing that she’s 111 and the fact that she’s still so mobile and still very much alert and oriented to what’s happening around her.

“Other residents really enjoy just the fact that she keeps them inspired by keeping moving, she always says it’s important to keep moving.”

Born in the Netherlands in 1912, Mrs van der Linden migrated to Australia with her husband and young family in 1955 and went on to work in full-time paid employment. She held a wide variety of jobs, including grape picker, nursing assistant, typist and clerical assistant, and had an interest in fashion and dressmaking inherited from her mother and father - a seamstress and a tailor.

Nowadays, Mrs van der Linden enjoys socialising with family, friends and fellow residents in between gym sessions and her regular walks.

“With my family I like to sit together and have a meal, a very simple meal together, that’s always very nice in a family atmosphere,” she says.

With four children, 10 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren, Mrs van der Linden’s birthday celebrations will be full of wonderful moments with her family and her friends at West Beach Residential Care.

Her advice for a long life is, “Be happy with yourself and be content with what life gives you, sometimes it’s not very good and sometimes it’s better but you have to take the bad with the good as well and it’s possible to make living a joy.” And of course, “keep moving, don’t sit still”.

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