Pictures: Supplied
A PAIR of filmmakers, working on a project to document the lives of centenarians, have interviewed a 110-year-old woman who grew up in Rosebud.
The astounding recollections of Edie Dryden, who was born while Australians were still entrenched at Gallipoli, shines a light on a distant time in our past.
Edie was born on 16 October 1915 in Wandin, country Victoria. Her parents were strawberry farmers and her early life was shaped by a world without many of today’s modern comforts.
As a young child she moved to Rosebud where she completed her schooling and met Edward (Ted) Dryden. They married in 1933 at St Francis Xavier Church in Frankston and began their life together during the years of the Great Depression.
She details how her father sold his farm in Wandin and purchased “a lot of land” on the Mornington Peninsula because it was so cheap.
“People thought we were awfully rich as they were all so poor down there,” said Edie.
She attended school in Rosebud. There were just 47 pupils and one teacher. Her best friends was Ethel Bundy. She stayed at school until the eighth grade.
“My father didn’t want us to go on any further. He used to say ‘women don’t need education’,” said Edie.
“It was a different life then.”
When Edie left school, she worked in a grocery shop in Rosebud.
After getting married to Ted Dryden, the couple moved to Seaford.
Edie eventually had six children; five boys and one girl.
Edie recounts the trauma of losing daughter Judith at just 13. She had contracted rheumatic fever that damaged her heart.
“I collapsed. I didn’t come to until all my people were there sitting around. So I can’t remember very much about her falling. She was in my arms. I know I was holding her. And that’s when she died.”
Edie never really recovered from the trauma of losing her daughter.
The family lived in Yarragon for a time before eventually moving to Yackandandah, where Edie still lives in a nursing home.
She talks about all her children, with three of them “in heaven”. She says “I hope to see them all again”.
The 100 Project was created by filmmakers John Winter and Ros Walker, who believe that people who have lived the longest offer a unique perspective on the world — one that often leads to the most surprising and powerful stories.
You can view the interview here: the100project.com/centenarian/edie-dryden
First published in the Mornington News – 24 March 2026
