Steering past 100 with independence intact … and an impeccable driving record

In 1935, Mr Haley turned 17 and a Corindi Beach policeman handed him a licence with the suggestion he take it easy, advice the centenarian still heeds today while he drives his Holden Barina to appointments around town.

“Normally you’d do a test but Sergeant Small was in a hurry and he wanted to go to the post office, so I drove him there and he just gave me my licence,” he said.

Mr Haley said that was the last dealing he’s ever had with the law while he’s been behind the wheel, but if it were up to him there’d be harsher penalties for hurried drivers who fail to giveaway.

“People were much better drivers than they are today, much better. There was no automatics so you had to learn how to drive properly and use gears,” he said.

For the past five years Mr Haley has driven the Holden – an automatic – to his weekly gym sessions, to his doctors appointments and to the Duntryleague Golf Club for a drink or a meal.

He said he doesn’t drive far or when the roads are busy, and if he doesn’t feel up to it he can get a taxi through the Department of Veterans Affairs – having served in the Middle East and New Guinea from the age of 22.

It took until the end of World War 11 for a 26 year-old Mr Haley to own his first car, a Chevrolet his mother gave to him and his new bride when they set off to start a life together on a rundown property in Manildra.

Like then, Mr Haley said driving around Orange today gives him the independence to get his jobs done the way he wants them done.

“Otherwise I have to rely on people to do things for me and it’s not quite the same,” he said.

Mr Haley is just two months shy of his 101^st birthday.