Joan – who now lives at Rosedurnate Aged Care Plus – was once a teacher, secretary, nurse, army officer, kennel operator, midwife and farmer, and has always been a horse lover.

And on Sunday, February 4, she reached a milestone not too many people get to achieve and enjoy – Joan turned 100 years old.

So it was only fitting she celebrated the special occasion with not one gathering, but three.

A week and a half prior to her birthday, Joan had a visit from State Member for Orange Phil Donato, who presented her with flowers and a certificate.

She celebrated with her close family friends at Rosedurnate with an intimate morning tea and cake on her birthday on Sunday, which was followed by a facility morning tea with her fellow residents and her former neighbours on Monday morning.

Joan said she had been looking forward to her birthday and it “felt wonderful” to turn 100.

She also said she had no particular favourite memories as there were just too many to name.

“She always said for years ‘I’m going to make 100’ and here she is,” close friend Christine Curteis said.

“She’s been waiting for the letter from the Queen,” she laughed.

“She wasn’t interested in anything else yesterday but the letter and her cake.”

Christine first met Joan more than 20 years ago when Joan fell off a horse at 79 years old and needed someone to clean for her.

“I worked for her for two years and we became very good friends,” Christine said.

“She’s just part of our family now...My girls call her Aunty Joan.

“Joan was many things [in her life]...and was very outgoing and independent until she was about 89.”

Joan’s former neighbours joined her for morning tea on Monday and reminisced of the days living near Joan when she owned a farm near Lake Endeavour.

“I was in labour with our son at Parkes Hospital on September 23, 1969, Joan was my midwife and she was telling me she wanted to buy a block of land with horses, dogs and geese,” Penny Klein said.

“She ended up buying the block next door to us.

“And she taught our son Philip how to ride a horse.”

Joy Wright remembered Joan loved to come visit her and her family.

“She knew our children went to Pony Club – she used to ride 20 kilometres to our house just to see the kids and their horses,” she said.

Here’s a little history on Joan’s life.

Joan Agnes Gordon Bennett was born on February 4, 1918 in Southhampton, England and was the only child of Henry and Bessie Gordon Bennett.

Henry Gordon Bennett was on active service with the A.I.F (Australian Imperial Force – the main expeditionary force of the Australian Army during World War I) in France and at the time, aged 31, was the youngest general in the Commonwealth Forces having been promoted in the field through the ranks.

During the course of the war Joan’s mother travelled to England to be closer to her husband.

At the end of the hostilities Henry, Bessie and baby Joan took ship back to Melbourne.

Before the war Henry had been an actuarial clerk with the AMP Insurance company and he was offered his old job back.

This was not acceptable to Henry as his rise to the rank of general meant that his position in society had also risen, so he moved the family to Sydney and started his own accountancy business.

Joan’s early life was a life of privilege, Henry’s business prospered and they set up their home in Rose Bay overlooking Sydney Harbour.

They employed a maid and Joan was enrolled at Kamballa School for girls. Holidays were spent at Bowral in the Southern Highlands where Joan learnt to ride and care for horses, a passion that lasted all her life.

From Joan’s home she could look up the Harbour and watch the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Her father had been appointed one of two city commissioners when the government sacked the city council for corruption. Along with her mother and father she had VIP seating when the opening ribbon was cut prematurely by Captain Francis De Groot.

Joan finished her schooling at Kamballa at the end of Year 11 in 1934. In her last year she had been a prefect and school captain. On leaving school she enrolled in a three months’ physical education course in the city.

Joan’s first paying job was as the physical education teacher at the Methodist Ladies College in Melbourne. She found it a tough assignment as a lot of the young ladies were only slightly younger than herself and maintaining discipline was interesting to say the least. She said that she had to toughen up very quickly.

She stayed in that position for one year, after which she accepted the job as sports mistress at Marsden College at Kelso to be a bit closer to her parents and was working there when World War II broke out.

Joan’s father went back into active service in the Australian Army as commanding officer of the Eighth Division A.I.F.

Joan wanted to enlist but the army wasn’t accepting any untrained women recruits so Joan joined the VAD (Voluntary Aid Detachments). They were issued with military-looking uniforms, they paraded and drilled like the military, but were actually part of the red cross organisation. Their female modern equivalent would be a nurses aide.

As casualties mounted in the war the government realised they needed more nurses and the VAD’s were allowed to enlist and train as nurses on the job. Joan trained at Concord Repatriation Hospital, nursing injured military personnel.

She recalled the midget submarine raid on Sydney, causing the air raid alarm to sound, she ran out to the slit trenches, jumped in and found herself up to her chest in water in the month of June.

During the course of the war Joan rose through the ranks – she did officer training and was a lieutenant at the war’s end.

Joan volunteered to go to Japan with the Commonwealth Occupation Forces. She travelled extensively, visiting Hiroshima and skied on Mount Fugi.

She also experienced several earthquakes.

Joan was demobilised in 1947, finding employment first doing clerical work with a farm machinery dealer in Adelaide and then moved to secretarial work at Cooma on the Snowy Mountain Scheme.

Joan liked to travel – she went to Britain where she took employment nursing at the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary, a name she found most amusing. She thought it was a very posh way of saying hospital. She also did a stint as a district nurse based in Caernarvon in Wales.

On her return to Australia Joan trained as a midwife at Ryde Hospital. During in this busy time in her life, Joan was involved in running Fulmer Boarding Kennels in the Blue Mountains where they bred champion cocker spaniels.

Joan practiced nursing at Mudgee and finally Parkes.

On her retirement Joan bought a 170 acre property in the Parkes Shire, naming it “Bundalee”, where she could indulge her love of horses, raise cattle and pursue her other love, the Girl Guide movement. She was heavily involved with the “lones”, guides that had no local group or lived in a remote location. She was particularly proud when one of her lones achieved “Queens Guide” status.

Joan was also a regular member of the Bindogundra Church and attended many Anzac Day services in Parkes.