PETER Boekel is not an average 97-year-old man – he is a bright spark, clever and remarkably “with it” for a man of his age.
On Australia Day, Mr Boekel, originally from Holland, celebrated with his family and the Kooweerup community at the award ceremony at the town’s community centre.
He was presented with the Citizen of the Year award, an honour he didn’t expect but was humbled to receive.
Speaking from his Killara Hostel room, Mr Boekel told the Gazette about his life and his love of the swamp.
Mr Boekel has lived through the Great Depression and World War II before moving to Australia from Holland in 1950.
He lived in Toolangi before owning a fruit shop in Box Hill and finally settling in Kooweerup on a farm 10 years later.
“I managed to improve the farm – I was born into one in Holland and left school at age 12,” Mr Boekel said.
In 1978, he sold most of the farm and wanted to travel the world with his wife Betty and enjoy retired life , but he said Kooweerup was always home.
“I love Australia, particularly the swamp, it’s such a nice community,” he said.
Most of the community would know Mr Boekel and he says it’s because he has the “gift of the gab” but it’s also because he and his wife would visit sick people in hospital and were heavily involved in the area.
Mr Boekel has five children, 20 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren with another two on the way.
“I tell them they can add to it any day,” he said.“We are definitely a happy family, we get together and we are just really happy.”
