Inner south suburbs set the benchmark for Canberra lifespans, 24 years in front of Gungahlin

"I've got type 2 diabetes and I have four insulin injections a day and I'm not careful about what I eat. And my blood sugar is far too high. So I'm not sure why I'm still around," Mr Virtue said.

But staying active after retirement - and some prompting from his daughter, Emma, to see a cardiologist that caught blocked arteries before a fatal heart attack - had kept Mr Virtue going.

Along with his wife of more than 60 years, Claire, also 88, Mr Virtue calls Hughes, one of Canberra's longest-lived suburbs home.

Curtin, Garran and Hughes are Canberra's longest-lived suburbs, where the median age at death was 87 between 2013 and 2017.

There is a near quarter of a century difference between the shortest-lived suburbs in the city's more recently developed northern fringe.

The suburbs of Gungahlin - including Casey, Amaroo, Forde, Franklin and Harrison - have the ACT's youngest median age at death, of 63.

In other news:

Across the ACT, the median age at death is 81, the same as the national average but a year less than the average of the other capital cities.

Nine areas of Canberra had median ages at death above the national average, while 13 areas were below the national average.

Adelaide is Australia's longest-lived city, where the median age at death was 83, the figures, compiled by Torrens University's Public Health Information Development Unit, show.

Exactly half the deaths registered in the period were deaths of people above that age and half were deaths below that age.

Mr Virtue welcomed the news that he was in a long-lived part of the city.

Curtin, Garran and Hughes, which are among the most socially advantaged areas of the ACT, also had the second lowest incidence of all cancer types, well below the national average.

Flynn, Fraser, Melba and Spence were the suburbs with the highest cancer incidence, 10 per cent higher than the national rate.

For just over two years, the couple has lived in an aged-care home in Hughes. They made the decision to come in together.

Mr Virtue said keeping very active mentally since retiring had helped keep him going. Mr and Mrs Virtue still sing together in a choir.

Mr Virtue also spent 16 years as a volunteer guide at the Australian War Memorial and has given more than 230 talks so far to Probus and Rotary Clubs, seniors and church groups and others around Canberra.

Mr and Mrs Virtue came to Canberra in 1964, a decade after they married, and lived for three years in Northbourne Flats while Mr Virtue worked for Doug Anthony as the Nationals MP's press secretary.

"Then after the whichever election it was, '66 or something, it looked like we were going to be here for perhaps another three years so we decided we ought to get a house," Mr Virtue said.

"So we used to look around at weekends and Claire used to look around during the week and she saw a place in Garran that she liked the look of and we went out to have a look at it.

"The builder was there and he said, 'Sorry, we've just sold it'. But he said, 'We're building a house just around the corner'. So we had a look at the plans, we liked it and we bought it."

The couple lived in the house at Garran for 33 years before moving to Jerrabomberra, where they stayed for 20 years, to be near family.

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