General News
22 June, 2025
100 years young for Cyril
Natimuk's Cyril Webb is celebrating another birthday milestone today as he joins the 100 club.
Marking the occasion, an afternoon tea has been organised at Natimuk Nursing Home, where he resides, which will be enjoyed by family, friends, and special guests.
Born in 1925 at Bush Nursing Hospital, Mr Webb was the third child of parents William Robert and Eve Webb.
He had two sisters and four brothers and lived on the east side of Arapiles Grass Flat Road, 12 miles northwest of Natimuk.
Their house had no electricity and no running water, with rooms being lit by lanterns and wicks and run-on lighting kerosene.
There was no refrigerator, but they had a Coolgardie safe, which was made of a wooden frame with a door on the front and hessian draped around it, soaked in water from a trough of water at the top, dripping down to keep the food items cool.
They soon bought a fridge that ran on kerosene.
Mr Webb was enrolled at the Wyn Wyn school in June 1931, at the age of six, and studied arithmetic, English, reading, grammar, history, and geography.
He stayed in school until Year eight, when he was 14 and a half years old, where he received a Merit Certificate.
His mother passed away from cancer at the age of 57, but his father lived until he was 101 years old.
In July 1943, at the age of 18, Mr Webb joined the Volunteer Defence Corp (VDC) during World War ll, and he is now the last surviving member of the brigade.
They trained once during the week and on either a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
Mr Webb was also a Vital Rural Worker, assisting farmers with tasks such as farming, shearing, fruit picking, fencing, and more.
On March 2, 1950, he married Thelma Rasmussen at Horsham Methodist Church.
They moved to Waitchie, in the Mallee, where they farmed for a couple of years with Mr Webb's brother, Lindsay, and his wife, before moving back to the south of Lake Natimuk, where they built a house.
He continued to work on the farm until he received a job opportunity as a truck driver with the Shire of Arapiles, later progressing to grader driver and eventually becoming foreman.
In December 1953, their only child, Robin, was born.
Sadly, in 1983, Thelma passed away at the age of 56 after battling a cancer diagnosis.
Mr Webb retired from the Shire of Arapiles on September 18, 1986, the same year he remarried Florence on May 3.
Mrs Webb recalled the night they met.
"We met dancing, and we both went back on the same night," she said.
They have now been married for 39 years and have had many good times together.
The couple honeymooned in Cairns and have travelled around the country together, visiting Darwin and Brisbane while also seeing New Zealand.
"Cyril didn't like driving, so I did it all," Mrs Webb said.
Together, they lived in Horsham at various locations before moving into what is now known as the Eureka Retirement Village on River Road, Horsham.
Mr Webb is known to be a green thumb and still enjoys getting out in the garden and doing the watering when he can.
Mrs Webb said he was "always out in the garden", maintaining greenery whenever he could.
While he lived with Mrs Webb at the Village in Horsham, he spent a lot of time looking after the garden.
In October 2021, he became a resident of Natimuk Nursing Home.
Mr Webb has two grandsons, Matt and Tim, and five great-granddaughters: Lara, Milla, Indy, Becky, and Penny.