By JOLENE OGLE
This week Noosa will say farewell to one of the region’s stalwarts who gave so much to the community and asked for so little in return.
Mae Woodward (nee Mussig) was born at Cooroy hospital in 1935, went to school at Tewantin State School, as did her five daughters, and is known to many as one of the prominent members of the Noose netball community.
Heavily involved in the region’s first kindergarten, Mae has helped shape Noosa in more ways than one and this week the community says farewell as Mae travels to Tasmania to join her family.
“It’s sad to leave but sometimes you just have to be with your family,” she said.
Speaking with Mae, it’s clear to see the cheeky 79-year-old still has the same love for life she enjoyed throughout her years.
Ask her how she met her husband Don and Mae will say she lured him with her sexy body but the truth is she challenged him to a swim across the Noosa River.
An afternoon spent with Mae reveals a snapshot of life in the Noosa shire when the days seemed brighter and life far simpler, with few cars and no electricity until well after World War II.
Of Mae’s family, made up of three sons and four daughters, Mae was the tomboy who would travel with her father, uncle and other working men to milk and dip the cows from the age of 10. Built tough, Mae would muster the cattle on North Shore, swimming the horses through the water and driving the cattle up the main street to market.
Mae recalls days spent milking 20 cows before breakfast, knickers made of flour bags and a family living on little to no money.
But for Mae, the memories are golden and full of love and laughter.
“It was a time when we all looked after each other,” she said.
“We were always well-dressed, clean and never hungry, but we never had any money. We can never say we were hungry. We were self-sufficient. Noosa was a fabulous place to be as a child.”
One of Mae’s favourite memories, and one she tells with a grin on her face, was when her Dad was bitten on the bum by a shark while hauling fish in the Noosa River.
“Dad was working with the Tedfords doing a big haul (of fish),” she said.
“He was in the deep water and they knew there was a shark caught in the net, but it was such a large haul of fish, they didn’t want to lose it.
“Then the shark bit through the net and bit him on the bum.
“The first thing we heard of it was he was in hospital with no leg! But it was just a flesh wound.”
Since her golden childhood, Mae has accumulated a list of achievements.
She married Don, her late husband, who she met in Brisbane where she had moved to work at 16-years-old.
Upon her return, Mae, aged 24, and Don began a building business, helping to build many of the homes in the Tewantin district.
At the age of 24, Mae decided the region was in need of a kindergarten and set to work to build the region’s first early-learning centre that still stands today in Tewantin.
After the birth of her five daughters, Lynden, Suzan, Julie, Sandra, and Jenny, Mae only got busier working hard to raise her family as well as build the first netball courts, coach and train netballers, run for Noosa Council, volunteer in the school canteen, and manage three photo stores in Noosa, plus help establish the Noosa Photo Club.
“I had five jobs at one point,” she said.
“I don’t even know how I did it. Most days I would work until midnight and then be up at 5am.”
After retirement, at the age of 68, when most people rest and relax, Mae decided to take up outrigging and continued with the sport for 10 years.
When Mae packs her bags and heads for her new life in Tasmania, Noosa will lose one of its foundation residents who has helped shape and create the community residents know and love today.
