Queensland’s oldest man Dexter Kruger has big plans for 110th birthday

Dexter Kruger’s best years were from age 55 to 75, he started writing at 86, did farm work until he was 95 and is planning to publish his most ambitious project when he turns 110.

Dexter Kruger has big plans for his 110th birthday. Pic David Martinelli

DEXTER Kruger’s best years were from age 55 to 75, he started writing at 86, did farm work until he was 95 and is planning to publish his most ambitious project when he turns 110.

Queensland’s oldest man said the autobiography he is working on would cover 240 years of history for a “family from Kilcoy called Kruger”.

“I will be 110 on January 13 next year and I hope to publish this on my birthday,” he said.

The autobiography would sit along 12 other books Mr Kruger, a former grazier, has authored and have just been purchased for the State Library.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who wrote to wish Mr Kruger a happy birthday when he turned 109, said she had been delighted when she received a reply with a direct request to purchase his collection.

Dexter Kruger has lived a busy life right and doesn’t intend to stop. Pic David Martinelli

“Dexter Kruger is a truly remarkable, very proud, and perceptive Queenslander,” Ms

Palaszczuk said.

“Simply, as a wordsmith and author, his twelve books containing 240,000 words are proof

alone of that.”

“His stories, pictures and drawings, spanning from when he was just five years old on the

land around Kilcoy, the Brisbane Valley and parts of the Darling Downs are such wonderful

insights and are a valuable record for generations to come.”

Mr Kruger, who lives in a nursing home in Roma, said he got an urge to start writing in 1996 and penned about 300 stories, quotes, quips, points to ponder and a few poems over the following 23 years.

Annastacia Palaszczuk with a book by Dexter Kruger

“They were all pretty well done from memory,” he said.

“I’d take a couple of weeks to get my memories and then write them.”

He said the stories, all penned in what he called his own peculiar style, were a mix of anecdotes, history and information but also included about five pieces of fiction.

“The readers won’t be able to pick out the fact from the fiction,” he said.

Mr Kruger said he dictated all his works to a friend at a computer who typed them down.

“I’m 90 per cent blind so I can’t read or write,” he said.

Originally published as Queensland’s oldest man Dexter Kruger has big plans for 110th birthday