Our People
18 August, 2025
Athol chalks up a ton
BELOVED Ararat resident Athol Graham joined an exclusive club last week, celebrating his 100th birthday in style with a party at Gorrin Village.
Friends and family gathered Thursday morning to celebrate Athol’s milestone, and Ararat Rural City Mayor Jo Armstrong was on hand to present a congratulatory letter from His Majesty, King Charles III.
Athol’s five children Rhonda, Russell, Delwyn, Lyndel and Colin were thrilled to share the special day with their popular father and in the lead up to the big day, Colin took some time to share a few things about Athol with The Ararat Advocate.
Colin said Athol has always been a proud and loving family man during a lifetime where he’s embraced being a father, grandfather and great-grandfather.
Athol was born in Ararat and went trough school with Ararat PS 800 and Ararat High School, which Colin says his father uniquely passed leaving honours, equivalent to matriculation, in 1940.
“At the time, Dad was the youngest student to achieve this certificate,” he said.
From there Athol was off into the workforce, starting out as a bank clerk with English, Scottish and Australian Bank which Colin says, took his father across to the other side of the state.
“Dad’s first posting was at Lang Lang in 1941, on an annual salary of 95 pounds,” Colin said.
Athol turned 18 in 1943, and World War II was raging in both Europe and the Pacific and Australia’s focus was primarily on fighting the Japanese as they advanced throughout South-East Asia, so Athol put his hand up to join the Royal Australian Air Force on December 29.
Following six-weeks of basic training in Shepperton, the young fella from Ararat was sent to Sydney and then Brisbane, before shipping out on United States Army Transport ‘Evangeline’ to a destination unknown to the troops at the time.
After 12 days at sea, Athol disembarked at Morotai, Indonesia and then jumped about a Douglas DC-3 and flew to Labuan, off the northern coast of Borneo where he served until the surrender of Japanese forces in 1945, which Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced a day after Athol’s 20th birthday.
Athol returned to ES&A Bank after discharging from the RAAF as a leading airman on July 3, 1947 but he soon decided to have a crack at other things, with Colin saying his father tackled all sorts of jobs which saw him working in the shearing industry, fencing contracting, motor vehicle sales, carpentry, shed sales, real estate and job he particularly enjoyed as a travelling salesman, driving around in a shiny new ute provided by the chemical supply business he was working for.
A keen sportsman, Athol was a regular at the sporting grounds around town playing football and cricket, most notably with Caledonians in the Ararat & District Football Association.
Athol married the love of his life Gwenda Cassell on January 14, 1956 and treasures his memories of sharing 55 years of marriage until her passing in November, 2011.
Colin said his father joined Imperial Chemical Industries’ rural division in 1960 where he worked for 23 years until ICI’s rural division merged with Coopers Animal Health and Athol was offered an early retirement package in 1983.
“Dad took the retirement package and continued working as a rural consultant and then later became a census collector,” Colin said, “He also served on the Ararat Retirement Village Committee and at 63 was appointed the administrator.”
“After mandatory retirement at 65, Dad continued part-time work as a placement co-ordinator for TAFE, then a tutor for public speaking which led to teaching unemployed students sales skills and basic business management.”
Colin said his father has always been committed to serving the community, volunteering his time with numerous groups including school committees, Chalambar Golf Club, Ararat YMCA, the Lake Fyans committee, Probus and Legacy, of which Athol is the longest serving legatee in Ararat.
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