On 31 March, Jim Grant will turn 100, marking a century shaped by hard work, tough times, humour, and an enduring love for family. Added to this remarkable birthday celebration, on 25 February he also celebrated 68 years of marriage to his wife Ruth.
Asked if he is expecting a congratulatory letter from the King for his centennial birthday, Jim grins. “If the King’s got time; he’s got a fair bit going on at the moment!”
Born in 1926, Jim is the eldest and last surviving of five children of Jim and Gladys Grant. He grew up on a farm, where life was defined by early mornings, hard labour and few luxuries. “My parents had a farm at Upper Pinbarren. We grew bananas and had dairy cattle,” he said. “When I first started school, I had to ride a horse to school. If he didn’t want to go to school, he didn’t go, that horse. But we had no other way of getting there.”
With one teacher and 85 students, Pinbarren school was less than ideal, and Jim was later sent to school at Tewantin for a better opportunity at an education. However Jim’s schooling ended abruptly when World War II broke out. “I had to go back and work for Dad on the farm so I left school when I was about 12,” he said. With labourers enlisting, he became his father’s sole help.
Tragedy struck when one of the first school buses in Queensland – an old cream delivery truck that would take school children to Pomona State School – was involved in an accident that left his sister critically injured. “She was leaning against the door and fell out. She was in hospital for three months and my mother stayed there for that whole time. The cost of it was enormous … there were no free hospitals,” he said.
In 1951, seeking something of his own, Jim entered a ballot in Far North Queensland. For 200 pounds [pre-decimal currency], he won 200 acres of virgin tropical bushland near Innisfail. “It was just a block of land – virgin country – and I had to clear it myself,” he said. “I was the first at Mena Creek to grow bananas. They all liked to tell me the land wasn’t suitable.” [Mena Creek is now recognised as an excellent area for banana farming].
Life was not easy for Jim carving a living for himself from 200 acres of rough tropical jungle in Mena Creek and he lived at first in a humpy [a small, temporary shelter made from bark and tree branches]. “One day I came home to my humpy – it only had a small doorway – and there was a cassowary eating my bread. They are big birds [approx. 1–2m tall] and can be dangerous but I think he got just as big a fright as I did, and we both ended up trying to get out the door at the same time. Must have looked funny.”
In 1957 he met Ruth. “When I was on the farm in Innisfail, I managed to build a house to live in. One day I was sitting on the back step and I saw Ruth walk past.” Jim pauses at the memory, with a smile spreading across his face like he’d won the lottery. “And I had to watch myself – her mother was on one side and her brother on the other. I courted Ruth for six months after we met,” he said, smiling broadly. “I’m only here this long because she’s kept me going.”
By 1973, with four children, Jim returned to Cooroy. “The main thing that brought me back here was education for the kids.”
He drove trucks for Bonnell Brothers, installed cattle tick spray races, and worked at the Nandroya sawmill to provide for his family. He still managed to make time for exercise and passion projects. “I always liked to play tennis at the Cooroy courts; we’re a family of tennis players,” he said. “And I’ve always been very interested in woodworking.”
A founding member of the Cooroy Woodworkers Club, Jim has made 14 grandfather clocks, a bedroom suite, rocking horses, a roll-top desk, and more. Some of Jim’s work is on display at the Woodworks Museum in Gympie, including a master crafted wooden ball intricately pieced together with hexagon-shaped timber, all polished to a high shine. “I made that table you’re sitting at. Everything that’s in this home, I built,” he said.
Jim’s longevity has been carved out by 100 years of strong character, hard work, and devotion to his wife and family – his spare time spent on projects that he loved but ultimately were part of caring for his family.
A life built by hand, sustained by love, and rich with stories.