She ruled the roost in Cobar for decades and would stop at nothing to get what she needed for her home town.
Cobar is coming to terms with the loss of its long-serving mayor Lilliane Brady, 90, the longest serving female mayor in NSW.
And to mark her lifetime of achievements, the NSW Government has announced a State Funeral in Cobar for her next Friday, February 19.
NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro announced Mrs Brady will be commemorated with a State Funeral.
"Lilliane Brady OAM was the longest serving female Mayor in NSW and will be formally acknowledged by the NSW Government for her decades-long commitment to regional NSW by way of a State Funeral," he said.
"For 40 years Lilliane was a vocal advocate for her community and the broader western NSW region and fiercely fought for what she believed in.
"While small in stature, Lilliane was a giant of local government for the last four decades and her unrivalled passion for the people of Cobar was critical in seeing the advancement of the community through local projects and funding."
After a fall last year, she never fully recovered and went downhill following her 90th birthday in December and passed away last Saturday. She is said to have stayed alive so that she could her see her son Allan "Pally", who rushed over from Western Australia to be at her bedside. Her daughters Deirdre and Sue were there too.
Cobar's deputy mayor Peter Abbott said on the news of her passing: "Cobar has lost the capital C out of Cobar today".
Cobar airport staff are preparing for the largest influx of planes in a long-time to Cobar for the State Funeral next Friday.
Lilliane Brady was as much feared as revered. No politician escaped her wrath if they stood in the way of getting things done for Cobar. She once told a senior federal politician in Canberra who was getting a bit gooey with her on an official visit: "I'm here for finance, not romance".
She often left people wondering where they stood after a spray. A long-time Cobar resident and horse trainer Allan Prisk said: "if you were in her inner sanctum you were fine, but if you weren't, look out !"
A lot of her outspoken utterances were meant in jest. She recently was part of the ABC's Back Roads program on Cobar, and at the age of 89 and in ill-health, she inspired many viewers with her interview.
There were so many initiatives in Cobar she was part of, from a modern nursing home, named after her, and built on the back of seeing a fruiterer forced to leave town because there was no aged care, to a new hospital, to, in her final years seeing her great dream of a mining school in Cobar come to fruition.
She was born in Lake Cargelligo, and her family then thought "Cobar was on the other side of the world". Her father was a builder and her mother, a cleaner, died when Lilliane was just 16.
She came to Cobar in November 19, 1964, and refused to get out of the car. She then thought it was the worst place in the world. Within two weeks she was in love with it and never left.
She arrived as a trained accountant with her husband 'Doc (Allan) Brady'. He himself became a stalwart of Cobar life. He'd help fix up the patients, while she fixed up the 'pipes' that helped make the town function. Cobar punched above its weight for a reason - its mining enterprises supplied a huge dividend to the state government. But Cobar always struggled to get proper community facilities and attract residents. It was always a fight and there was no bigger fighter for it than 'Lil'.
She said she met 'Doc Brady' in a pub and though he was "rude" they fell in love. They lived in a swish house in Strathfield in Sydney and had three kids and decided they wanted to give their kids a bush upbringing.
At her first tilt at council in 1974 she didn't tell 'Doc Brady' she was running. She was elected and he was stunned. In her second stint she was elected mayor. He was stunned again.
In 2018 she was presented the first-ever Local Government NSW Lifetime Achievement award.
Deputy Cobar Mayor Peter Abbott said "she was an absolute icon in this neck of the woods. I don't think I could do her justice by mustering enough words about her.
"She had a reputation as being as hard as nails but that was just part of her trying to get things done for Cobar. But she was more than that. If you mentioned her husband tears would well up in her eyes, and at times she was very soft and kind."
"She wasn't afraid to even take on Cabinet ministers and she embarrassed me several times with the vocabulary that came out of her mouth towards them."
Mrs Brady was a keen racing enthusiast and keen punter and developed a 50-year friendship with trainer Rodney Robb and they had many successes. She had racehorses in work in her name at the time of her death, spread from Brisbane, Melbourne to Perth. Her family are trying to work all the horses out.
Only three months ago she was believed to have instituted a major plunge on a horse that saw its price crash in from 12-1 to 3-1. It won. Almost everyone in Cobar would say 'Lil' was a winner too.
- The mayor, the trainer, the big collects: The Land will publish a colourful history of Lilliane's great racing exploits this Saturday