WA: Liberal matriach Dame Rachel Cleland dies
PERTH, April 18 AAP - Liberal Party matriarch Dame Rachel Cleland has died, aged 96.
Dame Rachel's death came just nine days after she moved from Perth to Queensland tobe with family.
Dame Rachel, considered the matriarch of the Liberals because her husband had helpedRobert Menzies set up the party, died in Queensland, WA Liberals President Kim Keogh said.
Mr Keogh was not immediately sure when she died but it is understood she passed awayin her sleep.
Just last week, she was interviewed for the Australian newspaper as she prepared to move east.
"I'm saying goodbye to politics, goodbye to Perth, and I'm going to be with my twochildren, my four grandchildren and my eight great-grandchildren in Queensland," she said.
"When I decide it is time to do something, then I just go and do it."
She told the newspaper she felt life still had much to offer although it had become predictable.
"Life just goes around in circles, same thing, different people, and when you've had96 years of it, well."
Dame Rachel penned two books and was preparing to write a third.
In recent years she had become known for her vocal opposition to the logging of old-growthforests.
AAP sd/mjm/de
KEYWORD: CLELAND
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