Olive Riley


Olive Riley was an Australian centenarian woman, from Woy Woy, New South Wales, believed for a time to have been the world's oldest online personal blogger and YouTube video poster, until American politician and radio talk show hostess Ruth Hamilton of Orlando, Florida was later found to be older and also a blogger.

Videos and blogs

Riley who was born in Broken Hill, New South Wales, began her blog titled The Life of Riley in February 2007 at the age of 107 and made her final post on 26 June 2008 from her Woy Woy nursing home complaining of a cough about two weeks before she died at the age of 108. She had posted over 70 entries, as well as several video posts on YouTube, in which she discusses both living through World War I and World War II, the years of The Great Depression, raising 3 children and working as a barmaid.

Film documentary

Her blog began soon after the release of a film about her, All About Olive, directed by documentary filmmaker Michael Rubbo and released in 2005. Rubbo gave Olive a co-directing credit, making her the oldest director in the world. The blog was suggested by Eric Shackle, a journalist in his late eighties, who was interested in promoting the idea that one is never too old for the internet.
Since Olive could not see well enough to type, Mike set up the blog for her and ran it for next two years with Eric's help, recording her stories, at first on audio and then later on video, to post over 100 YouTube items, all still visible today, as is her archive at mike.mikerubbo.com.