Cobar mayor Lilliane Brady dies at the age of 90

Mrs Brady was the longest serving female mayor in the state's history, and best known for being an outspoken champion, not just for the Cobar Shire, but for Western NSW.

It was announced by the Cobar Shire Council Lilliane had died peacefully overnight.

"It is with great sadness and respect that we inform you on behalf of Cobar Shire Council that the Mayor, Lilliane Brady OAM, has passed away peacefully in Cobar overnight," the council said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and loved ones."

Some people had never heard of Cobar, in the states far west, and neither had Mrs Brady before she moved there in the late 1960s.

"When I first came to Cobar, I didn't want to get out of the car," Mrs Brady told Australian Community Media in 2018.

She moved to Cobar with a young family after her late husband Alan secured a job as the local GP.

Mrs Brady only expected to stay 12 months, but instead stayed for more than 50 years.

"It's a long time to stay in a town you only planned on staying in for 12 months," she said in 2018.

Nevertheless, in 1974 she ran for council election after a man in his 80s was transferred from the local hospital to an aged care facility in Orange, five hours away.

He died alone.

"I went to see the hospital CEO, who told me it was policy," she said.

"I told him to stick it, I'll build a facility."

Mrs Brady began lobbying the federal government for grants and spearheaded extensive fundraising efforts in the community with the Cobar Geriatric Committee and Cobar Geriatric Care Committee.

The hard work paid off.

In 1982, Lilliane Brady Village opened as a 14-bed nursing home with nine self-care units.

Since then it has grown into a 34-bed not-for-profit facility comprising a hostel and a nursing home, plus there's a multipurpose health centre connecting the village and the hospital.

Mrs Brady told Australian Community Media it's the community that has made it such a successful and high-class facility by reaching into their pockets and donating hundreds of thousands to the cause.

"In the same year, the community raised $104,000 for the hospital, $66,000 for the village and $70,000 for Relay For Life," she said.

"The community give their hearts to anything you put on. That's what I love about it."

In recognition of her work, Mrs Brady was presented with a Local Government NSW Lifetime Achievement Award - the first of its kind ever presented.

"It was the biggest surprise," she said. "When they were presenting it, I thought they were presenting it to the mayor of Walgett.