They have put her longevity down to drinking no alcohol, not smoking and putting salt on everything.

Her granddaughter Natalie Marsh said none of the family members are surprised she made it to her 100th year.

“She’s definitely a trooper,” she said.

“She’ll probably even outlive some of her grandchildren at this rate.”

Stella was born in Uralla which is a town on the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales.

She met her husband there before they moved to Sydney. She moved to Port Macquarie in the late 70s early 80s before moving to the sunshine coast and then returning to the Mid North Coast to retire.

In the 80s Stella worked at the original Port Panthers as a cook.

Stella is the mother of four children Gloria (deceased), Gerald, Leslie and Neil. She has 10 grandchildren (one deceased) and 11 great grandchildren.

Natalie said her grandmother is very family orientated. She loves it when people go to see her especially the children of the family.

“She lights up whenever she sees one of her great grandchildren,” she said.

The cake for her second party will have the writing ‘bird on the biscuit tin’ written on it which is one of Stella’s favourite sayings.

“She always felt like a bit out of the loop with family information and could never have enough gossip,” Natalie said. 

“If she wasn’t the first to know she was the ‘bird on the biscuit tin’”.

Stella likes her possessions to be well presented and takes a lot of pride in her personal teapot collection.

Her passions include gardening, knitting and cooking. Stella has lived through war and major technological developments including the invention of television.

“I can’t imagine what she thinks now looking at us tapping away on our mobiles and sending instant messages,” Natalie said.

“She used to work as an operator during the war and that was incredibly different to the modern technology that we have today.”