Retirement isn’t for the fainthearted.
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Australians men born in 1881 could expect to live to just 47.2 years, and women to 50.9.
New retirees these days, baby boomers born around 1953, will live on average for 67.1 years for men, and 72.8 for women.
Some are living much longer.
Croquet champions
Bill Wallace may be Bendigo’s longest-standing retiree. The former school teacher hung up his chalk and blackboard in 1986, aged 55. Now 86, he has been retired for more than 32 years.
Mr Wallace began his working life as a joiner. To be a technical teacher then you had to work in a trade for ten years. Once he had reached this milestone, he moved into teaching.
When he first retired it was a busy time. His wife Maree was still working, so Mr Wallace was primary caregiver to their children.
Now he and Mrs Wallace are both retired. Aged 71 Mrs Wallace left nursing 16 years ago, and she’s happy to recommend retirement to anybody looking to try it.
She and Mr Wallace are busier than ever before.
Mr and Mrs Wallace were introduced to croquet eight years ago by a friend in their walking group. No longer in condition to play squash or tennis, they both thought croquet was the perfect thing.
It’s low impact, the people are “extremely” friendly, and you really have to think
“It’s not a game for the faint hearted, there’s a lot of strategy and tactics,” Mrs Wallace said.
“It’s probably consuming our life, but that’s great.
“It’s great that we can be fit and active, and we’re out meeting people and just enjoying our retirement.”
It now takes up much of their time. They play at least three times a week, and during pennant season normally four times.
Soon to turn 87, Mr Wallace is the oldest player in the Quarry Hill Croquet Club, one of a few octogenarians. He took out first place in his division of the Quarry Hill Croquet Club a few weeks ago.
Mrs Wallace retired at the age of 55. Mr Wallace was then 70, and with their children finished university and beginning their careers, they realised that it was time to see the world.
“There’s not much spare time for doing all the boring things like housework,” Mrs Wallace said.
“Life is great, really great, I recommend retirement for anybody. I could say I was born to retire, I’ve been retired 16 years, and it’s just good.
“I really thought retirement would be just sitting back and having leisure time, but we’re just on the go the whole time which is great.”
Theatre takes centre stage
Maureen Fleiner thinks she was born to be retired.
It’s great: she can do what she wants, when she wants.
Volunteering with Bendigo Theatre Company, Mrs Fleiner is often as busy as when she worked.
As production manager she can be at the theatre five days a week, five hours a day when the company puts on a show.
Currently she’s overseeing production of the Mousetrap, Agatha Christie’s famed stage play.
It’s “a bit unexpected” for Mrs Fleiner how involved she is in the company. But she does just love the theatre. She began making costumes for the company nearly 12 years ago, and her involvement has just grown.
“I manage the whole show from selecting the whole cast to directors, to making sure the show runs smoothly,” Mrs Fleiner said.
“I oversee everything.”
One of the people Mrs Fleiner overseas is John Moore, who will play the part of Major Metcalf in the Mousetrap.
Mr Moore had been a general teacher, then spent 20 years as a teacher librarian.
If they had left him in the library, Mr Moore thinks he would never have left.
But after a few years in reading recovery, he had had enough of teaching. With a few kids at home, Mr Moore looked round, and found a job with the newsagent in Strath Village, where he worked for eight years.
At the age of 68, he’s now been retired for 18 months.
His wife is still working, so Mr Moore is often at home in the mudbrick Strathfieldsaye house he built in the 1990s.
He hasn’t taken on more since leaving the newsagent, but has been content to with life around the house, and travel. In May his wife took long service leave, and they jetted off to Europe for a month.
He does miss teaching, but knew it was time to do something else.
“I miss the kids, I miss the teaching, I don’t miss all the meetings and all the rest of it,” Mr Moore said.
“I always seem to have got something to do.... I read, I do the garden. I’ve always been keen on sport, so I still read, I still run regularly.”
A simple way to change the world
Linda Beilharz’s retirement has seen her take on the role of Chief Flying Instructor at the Bendigo Flying Club.
When she’s not teaching people how to fly, Ms Beilharz can hire a plane to fly away, maybe to Western Australia, down to Tassie, across to Merimbula – when you’ve got a pilot’s license, you can go where you feel.
Ms Beilharz’s last job before ‘retirement’ was as the CEO of Women’s Health Loddon Mallee. Two years ago she retired, at the same time as her husband. Together they planned to travel.
But retirement wasn’t the start of the adventure for Ms Beilharz.
She had already trekked to both poles. In fact, she’s trekked across all four major icecaps in the world, adding Greenland and Patagonia to Antarctica and the north pole.
Working in human services, Ms Beilharz had spent her career using her skills to make life better for others. Curiosity about what her skills could bring her to do, and a love of bushwalking, led her to embark on these ambitious treks.
It was a glimpse into a completely different world.
“Amazing, it’s just such a different landscape,” Ms Beilharz said.
“Such a foreign landscape to us, such an inhuman landscape, it’s really quite lifeless, so you need to be really careful, but amazingly beautiful as nature can be.”
Read more: Linda Beilharz reflects on a rare feat
It was quite a surprise to Ms Beilharz to find that even in her 50s, she could switch totally new sector and job type.
In her first career, Ms Beilharz was working to create system change, a hard task, which doesn’t reward quickly.
As a contrast, she finds working as a flying instructor has very immediate rewards.
“It’s improved my flying enormously, so I’ve had a great enormous personal benefit. I also really just enjoy the simple task of teaching someone to fly,” Ms Beilharz said.
“It’s much more simple than trying to change the world, which is what we were trying to do.”
She hadn’t planned on a new career when she retired, but Ms Beilharz does feel lucky to have the job. Without the pressure of needing to work, she’s in a great position to enjoy it.
“For me it’s about having something constructive to do, something that gets you out of bed with a purpose in the morning. I like that activity, I certainly don’t feel ready to stop doing things,” Ms Beilharz said.
“It’s quite a surprise to know that even at my age I can do that total sector and job type switch.”
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