99-Year-Old Mechanic Works Six Days a Week in Tiny Town

In a town of just 215 people on a lonely stretch of Australian highway, a 99-year-old man still shows up to work six days a week with a smile.

Ray Gloster has been fixing cars at his family's garage in Underbool, Victoria since 1943. That's 83 years of oil changes, engine repairs, and serving his community along the Mallee Track, a remote 185-kilometer section of highway between Victoria and South Australia.

Born in 1927, the same year the first "talkie" movie hit theaters, Ray grew up in the garage his father opened in 1925. He remembers when his dad sold Chevrolets for 200 pounds each and brought electricity to their entire town in 1932 because he was "sick of kerosene lights."

Ray's favorite car? The 1948 Holden FX, the first model he worked on when it rolled into the shop. He declares the family won't be switching to electric vehicles anytime soon, citing the challenges of remote country living.

Now Ray may claim a Guinness World Record as the oldest working mechanic. The current record holder, Italian mechanic Fabio Sabbioni, was 97 years and 64 days when verified in 2024, but he was born seven months after Ray.

The Ripple Effect

Four generations of Glosters work side by side in the same workshop today. Ray's sons Doug and Robert took ownership 40 years ago and still work alongside their father daily.

Robert's son Cameron joined the business, and now Cameron's 17-year-old son Frankie works there two days a week while finishing high school. That's five generations connected to one garage, four of them currently turning wrenches together.

"To work with your father, I think it's just wonderful to be able to do that for so many years," Doug says.

Outside the workshop, Ray has served as justice of the peace, hospital board president, bowls club president, and even the town's movie projectionist. The Gloster family's commitment to Underbool runs as deep as the motor oil that's soaked into the garage floor over nearly a century.

Frankie isn't sure if he'll continue the family business, citing tough economics in a small town. But he knows one thing for certain: he wants to stay in Underbool, drawn by memories of working alongside his great-grandfather and the special bond they share.

Ray's family is gathering the paperwork to verify his world record, but he's not particularly interested in the attention. He'd rather just keep doing what he's always done: showing up, fixing what's broken, and serving his community one car at a time.