Eileen Rust still driving at 91

Eileen Rust has been driving for 60 years and never had a speeding ticket. She’s now 91 and has successfully passed her driving test again.

At age 91 Eileen Rust has been driving for over 60 years. Recently Eileen renewed her drivers license giving her unrestricted access to NSW's roads at the age of 91. Picture: Melvyn Knipe.

Eileen Rust has never been booked for speeding.

With a clean bill of driving, the 91-year-old recently renewed her licence. She was given the green light and will continue to drive unrestricted.

She’s been driving since she was in her late 20s. She said the biggest difference to today’s driving was the traffic.

“We only had half the population back then. I wouldn’t have known what gridlock was back then,” she said.

She learned to drive in Parramatta Park.

The Austral woman said there were a stream of learner drivers at the park on any day of the week. These days they don’t allow learners in there.

Her husband was her teacher. He said the first time she got behind the wheel at Parramatta Park, she said “look out, here comes a tree”.

Eilleen Rust first learnt to drive at Parramatta Park, at the time a popular venue for learner drivers, but since ruled out of bounds.

When she got her licence, the main things she had to learn was the distance you haad to park from a bus stop, railway line and pedestrian crossing. As well as a hill start and reverse park.

She did her test in a Kombi van.

“The Kombi had not guts on the hills. Everything would zoom past while we were chug, chug, chugging,” she said.

She failed the first time because she didn’t come to a complete stop at the top of the hill on Pitt St when a pedestrian stopped at the side of the road.

It was in a VW Kombi, similiar to the one picture, in which Eileen Rust did her first driving test 60 years ago.

“The examiner said I should have stopped and waved them across,” she said.

“I blame the pedestrian - they came to the edge and didn’t move. It was like a Mexican standoff.” She had the same examiner the second time around and passed. She said Stop signs were ‘halt’ until a man disputed a ticket he got for not stopping.

“He took them to court and said ‘halt’ had two meanings. They changed it afer that.

“We didn’t have roundabouts and when they were introduced, it wasn’t uncommon to see someone going the wrong way. “There were lots of articles in the paper to educate people in the late 60s. “When we mastered roundabouts, motorways came along.”

She said the Sunday afternoon drive was a ritual back in the day. “There’s no pleasure in doing a Sunday afternoon drive these days,” she said.

Mrs Rust lived in Pendle Hill for 30 years and still travels to see the same GP to this day.

“I’d go to either Parramatta or Blacktown from home. I always said I could drive blindfolded to either of those two,” she said. Mrs Rust has to renew her licence every two years and still claimed she had one thing over a lot of drivers on the roads these days.

“I can still do a hill start in a manual.”