Bert Hauptmann is the original tree-changer.
It was 1952, and he was working at the Canberra Grammar School when he decided to buy a plot of land out in what was then called Fyshwick.
Today, it is known as Pialligo — about a 10-minute drive from the city centre and within sight of the airport.
His friends thought he was mad.
"It was just a block of land with nothing much on it, just an old house and a few fruit trees."
He still lives there to this day, on what is his 100th birthday.
The tree-change comes good
Those in the market for Canberra property will feel a strong sense of envy for what Bert chose to do back in the early 1950s when he bought his block.
Up until then, he had worked at the school, first doing repair work, using his skills as a fitter and turner. Then he started teaching woodwork, metalwork and farm mechanics.
But he wanted a change and bought his plot of land, where he at first kept hens.
Greengrocers would come to him for eggs and after a while, for the vegetables he started to grow.
One of his strongest memories of this time is the day he decided to walk a cow he had bought and previously kept at the school to his new property across town.
It was a large undertaking.
"When we were crossing down and I could see the lights of the cottage, and I thought 'oh well we're getting closer now'."
Bert credits fresh cow's milk every morning to his longevity, as well as eating an apple a day from the orchard he later planted once he decided to move on from hen farming.
Asked what plans he had to celebrate his centenary, Bert is disinterested.
"I don't feel 100," he said.
He said his proudest achievement in life is his family, which he created with his late wife Betty.
"I’ve got a nice family, I’m proud of my family," he said.
"They’re all doing well and good people."
Pialligo still an 'oasis in the city'
In the 74 years he has lived in the national capital, he has seen enormous change.
When Bert moved to his property in Pialligo, the national capital did not yet have Lake Burley Griffin as its centrepiece and Canberra did not have all of the bridges that now join its northern and southern suburbs.
"Then they built another low-level bridge, about two metres high and that acted like a weir and the logs came rolling down in the flood, banked up against it and in 10 minutes, the water was into my pump shed.
"It was a nuisance."
Bert remembers the airport when it was small enough that you could walk out onto the tarmac when you were boarding a plane.
And he was once among a group of people asked to help get the starter motor going when the pilot needed a hand.
Despite all that change, Bert says Pialligo still offers a slice of rural life.
"I don't think it will change really," he said.
