FORMER World War II prisoner of war Fred Medhurst believes happiness can be achieved by maintaining a positive attitude and staying young at heart.  

The Wahroonga Retirement Village resident is a 90-year-old father of six, grandfather of 15, great-grandfather of 18 and a great-great grandfather of one.

He shared some of the ingredients he considered essential to living a long and happy life.

“Don’t worry about all your problems and just keep moving forward,” he said.

“Also, be careful with what you eat and drink.

“Keep active by doing things you like because exercise is very important to staying healthy.”

Fred is testament to the fact happiness is possible after enduring major difficulties.

At the age of 19 he joined the second 10^th field regiment as a digger and was taken prisoner by the Japanese army in 1941.

What followed was three grueling years of hard labor in Singapore, Burma and Thailand.

“I was one of 6,000 Australians who helped build the railway from Burma to Bangkok which was really labor intensive,” he said.

“I also helped remove the top off a hill by shovel, around 100 metres in diameter, which took 500 of us around eight months to complete.

“The food was ordinary for us prisoners of war but it was the mateship which stood out the most and we all bonded together.”

After the war he returned home by ship and worked on a farm in Queensland where he survived a drought and met his wife Barbara.

He describes his other jobs as working as a grease monkey at a Ford garage, owning a house painting business and working as a janitor at the high school.

Fred moved to Biloela in 1947 when around the population was around 2,500.

“There are close to 7,000 residents who live here now, a wide range of shops and I moved to Wahroonga Retirement Village in 2008,” he said. 

“The people here are very friendly.

“I live in a villa and my wife is in the nursing home so it’s very handy.

“Biloela is a good place to live and it’s only an hour and a half to Rockhampton.”