Oldest Australian Dexter Kruger celebrates his 111th birthday and shares his secret to a long life 

Australia’s oldest person has hit an incredible milestone as he celebrates his 111th birthday.

Dexter Kruger was born on January 13, 1910, in Kilcoy, a town in southeast Queensland, and celebrated his birthday on Wednesday.

Due to Covid-19, his party was much smaller than previous years at his nursing home in Roma, southwest Queensland.

Mr Kruger is the ninth eldest man in the world and said he ‘wonders how much longer I will have to live to become number one, because they are dying off pretty quick!’ 

When he hit 100, Mr Kruger was asked to share his secrets for living a long, healthy and happy life. 

‘There’s no secret… Keep breathing, have three meals a day, and the time goes on,’ he told ABC.

The retired farmer did say he did keep some regular habits like singing and eating a half-dozen prawns every day. 

‘I think they’re very good for you. And for my evening meal I’ll often have a tin of sardines with my soup,’ he said.

Asked about what he does in his spare time at his very advanced age, Mr Kruger joked: ‘Sometimes I sit and think, and sometimes I just sit.’ 

But Mr Kruger would not be with us today if it weren’t for his dad’s quick thinking when he was bitten by a deadly black snake that struck his foot while he working on a field in the bush.

‘My father was alongside of me, he drew his pocketknife, picked up my foot, slit it, put his mouth over it, and sucked all the poison out,’ Mr Kruger recalled.

He said he would have died within 10 minutes if it weren’t for his dad.  

Following the death of his wife when he was 86, Mr Kruger decided to write books and has since self-published 12 of them. 

He also offered some positive reassurance to Australians that ‘we’ll get through this virus thing’. 

‘In my industry – the cattle industry – we had several big problems overcome with vaccines. We’ve exterminated many things with vaccines, and that will happen with this,’ he said.