General News
7 March, 2026
Loss of a local legend: Vale Maud Coates
THE St Arnaud community is mouring a legend after losing the town’s oldest resident late last week.
THE St Arnaud community is mouring a legend after losing the town’s oldest resident late last week.
Maud Coates (nee Groom) was a household name, not only for being one of the few people to reach 109-years-old, but for giving so much of herself to her community and country.
After growing up on a dairy farm in West Pine, she lived many lives through her work, including farm work, a home helper and clerking for Tasmanian Brewries.
But she knew she wanted something a little more out of life.
Mrs Coates enrolled in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) on March 3, 1942 in Hobart, Tasmania.
Mrs Coates served as an Office Orderly and later a clerk, worked in Melbourne and the Southern region during the war, was promoted to Temporary Corporal in 1945, and was discharged in 1946.
After the war, Mrs Coates married George Coates, and they shared three children together, Bill, Judith and Andrew.
She settled into married and family life on a farm at Traynors Lagoon.
And as if that wasn’t extraordinary enough, Mrs Coates lived at home up until a few years ago, when she moved in to Kara Court nursing home.
She is survived by her three children, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
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