Mayor Lilliane Brady OAM was laid to rest at the Cobar Cemetery on Friday fol-lowing a State Funeral service in Drum-mond Park.
The service was described as “very fitting” for a woman who had dedicated 40 years of her life in service to Local Government with Cobar Shire Council.
Among those in attendance were NSW Dep-uty Premier John Barilaro (representing the Premier of NSW), Mark Coulton MP (representing the Prime Minister of Australia) and Christopher Sullivan, deputy official secre-tary, representing the Governor of NSW.
In addition to Lilliane’s family members, friends, fellow councillors (both current and former Cobar Shire councillors), council staff and community members, she was also hon-oured by the attendance of representatives from NSW Police, NSW Ambulance, Fire and Rescue NSW, Rural Fire Service, State Emer-gency Service and NSW Health services.
A large number of mayors, deputy mayors, current and former councillors from Broken Hill, Narromine, Brewarrina, Dubbo, Bogan Shire (Nyngan), Temora, Forbes, Wentworth, Weddin Shire (Grenfell), Central Darling Shire, Walgett, Warrumbungle Shire and War-ren councils were among the large crowd of mourners in attendance.
During the service Lilliane’s three adult chil-dren Suzanne Graham, Deidrei Bedwell and Allan (Pally) Brady recounted their memories of their mother.
Suzanne said she had heard people describe Lilliane as a “force of nature” and a “fierce advocate” but “to us she was our Mum and Nanna”.
She said Lilliane was “just as comfortable having smoko with the shearers as she was meeting with the Premier”.
Deidrei also spoke about Lilliane’s ability to easily adapt to different circumstances from sleeping in a horse trailer while travelling on the show circuit one week with her and Pally to staying in a five star hotel in Sydney the following week for “work”.
Pally said his mother had been “a remarkable person”, who was well known for “her dogged-ness, passion and drive for Cobar”.
“Mum said: ‘Cobar made you and you owe so much to Cobar’, but I think Cobar never made Mum, I think Mum made Cobar.”
Cobar Shire Council general manager Peter Vlatko said he could recount numerous colour-ful stories in his dealings with Mayor Brady.
“Everyone knew her and would line up to meet her or be seen to meet her,” Mr Vlatko said.
He said Lilliane’s tenacity in pursuit of fund-ing for the community was unparalleled.
