As the oldest president of the oldest dedicated poultry club in Victoria, Greenvale’s Alf Woods sometimes jokes he’s getting a bit long in the feather.
The 86-year-old, who helped write the book on Australian Poultry Standards and still travels across the country judging birds, is a legend in chook circles.
The stalwart of Essendon Poultry Society is a third generation office holder, following in the chooksteps of his grandfather Alfred and dad Allan.
So dedicated is he to all things poultry that, after he married in 1950, his lovely bride Gladys found herself spending the first day of her honeymoon in the poultry pavilion at the Sydney Royal Easter Show.
“She knew what she was getting herself in for,” Mr Woods says with a laugh.
While he’s since moved to acreage in Greenvale, he maintains a strong presence in Essendon as one of the longest-serving members of the Moonee Valley business community, having worked from the same Napier Street shopfront for 71 years.
“I got my junior tech certificate as a 15-year-old at 10.30am and by lunchtime I’d left school and started in my father’s plumbing business,” Mr Woods says.
As the years went on Mr Woods diversified and eventually the plumbing gave way to his Blue Sea Pools business, which until recently included four shops and exported pools to the Middle East.
Today, he still personally runs the Essendon shop, one of two remaining, and only three months ago stopped working Sundays.
The secret to active old age he says is work, chilling with … and eating chickens.
“I talk to my chickens every evening and I eat chicken soup every night. Every week I kill three chickens out of my backyard and make soup for the rest of the week.”
The Essendon Poultry Society’s 127th show, including the State Junior Championships, is on at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds Sunday, June 29
