By Jim Fagan
World War II veteran Bill Hoskin was the last to leave the party to celebrate his 100th birthday on Sunday afternoon.
Friends and family gathered at a Noosaville restaurant to congratulate centenarian Bill who served in the Middle East and New Guinea and is the only surviving 100-year-old Digger in Noosa.
Before he and his late wife, Nancy came to Noosa 26 years ago, they had a stock and station agency in Tara and five of his friends and former employees made the 740 km round trip from Tara and Dolby just to be with him.
Others came from Tin Can Bay and Brisbane. Bill would have loved his son, Marc, daughter-in-law Jenny and grandson Michael to be there, but Covid restrictions and the border closure between Victoria and Queensland prevented this.
Bill has already received tributes and congratulations from Queen Elizabeth, Governor-General David Hurley and his wife Linda, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Federal Member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien, State Member for Noosa, Sandy Bolton, and Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart.
On Tuesday, the actual day of Bill’s birthday, the president of the Tewantin RSL sub branch, Gino Amarrador and RSL Wellbeing team member, Richard Murphy, visited Bill at Carramar Home Care, Tewantin, and presented a certificate of congratulations from Queensland RSL.
This Sunday, Bill, a former elder of the St Andrews Presbyterian Church at Tewantin, will be guest of honour at a celebration lunch at Noosa Care, Carramar, where he has just moved in.
And the last word from Bill on his birthday party.
“It was great to see so many friends, some if whom I hadn’t seen in years.”
