Australia's oldest man has credited reaching his 111th birthday with a lifetime’s consumption of chicken brains.

Dexter Kruger, a former cattle farmer and veterinary surgeon from the Queensland outback, put his longevity down to a simple lifestyle of living “close to nature” and eating “what I grew in the garden or the orchard or the farm”.

Asked by Australia’s ABC broadcaster about reaching the milestone of 111 years and 124 days – which makes him the country’s oldest man on record – he said: “It's because I do things differently,” adding that he believed his weekly consumption of chicken brains might have helped.

“You know, chickens have a head and in that is some brains, and they are delicious little things. There's only one bite,” he said.

Mr Kruger completes morning exercises each day, spends time outdoors and is also working on an autobiography detailing the more-than-a-century he has been alive.

On Monday the supercentenarian, who was born on 13 January 1910, overtook the previous record holder Jack Lockett, a First World War veteran who was aged 111 years and 123 days when he died in 2002.

Melanie Calvert, the Pinaroo Roma nursing home manager, said Mr Kruger was “probably one of the sharpest residents here. His memory is amazing and his cognitive functioning is unbelievable”.

John Taylor, a founder of The Australian Book of Records, confirmed that Mr Kruger had become the oldest-ever Australian man.