The following year, 1923, when she was 10 years old, John Campbell Miles was credited with finding the mineral fields later named Mount Isa, and the Brisbane Courier Mail was first published.

The little girl's name was Elmer Meta Post, born on the 15 March 1913, the third eldest of 12 children to German immigrants who had been allotted land to farm along the Great Australia Bight in the Thevenard-Ceduna area in South Australia.

Growing up, Elmer was of that generation of hard workers who toiled the land, carted water for household use and watered the stock.

She went to school in a horse and buggy and would later recall that her father, in his later years, was working on the telegraph line that connected South Australia to the Northern Territory and the world.

She was no wilting rose in the family house or on the farm, as an anecdote told by her daughter shows.

"Mum told me once Nanna Meta Post told her ... to hop up and make a cup of tea for the boys ... to which she replied ... why can't they make me a cup of tea?"

"Nanna told her ...... they've been working outside, make them a cup of tea."

"To which Mum replied ... well Linda and I have been working here (in the house) all day."

From that time, the feisty young Elmer determined that the man she married would be one who would ask her from time to time ... can I make you a cuppa?

It would still be nearly forty years on before John Campbell Miles and Elmer would meet in the town, they both loved and respected, Mount Isa.

The intervening years saw Elmer grow into an elegant young woman who fell madly in love with a dashing young RAAF training officer, Jim Wishart.

They were engaged to be married but tragically he was killed in a flying accident in Victoria, at the beginning of World War Two.

Following his death, Elmer enlisted with the Royal Australian Women's Army and was sent to Adelaide River, just south of Darwin.

She later recalled ... there was plenty of action and siren warnings of enemy planes in the area.

However, Elmer readily admitted that war for her was not the horror and hardship that it was for many, although she was proud to have done her bit for her country and to have donned the khaki uniform.

Fortuitously, it was in Darwin, following the war that she was invited to go to Mount Isa to manage a lady's frock salon- Lucy Lloyd's.

On arrival, word soon went around that there was a new 'stunner' in the male-dominated town and before long one of its eligible bachelors, Frank Tadman, had 'set his hat' on Elmer much to the delight of friends, Dot Rafter and Lillian Roserver (later O'Shea).

Frank had arrived in Mount Isa in 1930 and opened Mount Isa's first jewellery and watchmakers' shop - Tadman's Jewellers.

After several months of courting and a marriage proposal, Elmer nervously accepted Frank's proposal and they were married in St James' Church of England on 9 July 1951.

When their baby girl arrived exactly 8 months later the town gossipers' loose tongues were wagging, until Frank put the record straight by announcing, loud and clear, that baby Pamela had arrived a month early!

Elmer finally met John Campbell Miles at a dinner hosted in his honour by the Rotary Club of Mount Isa, in 1962.

Ironically, Pamela (Pam) was 10 years old when she met John Campbell Miles, the same age as her mother was at the time when he registered the mineral lease name of Mount Isa, 40 years earlier.

While Frank immersed himself in Rotary, Elmer became a valued member of the Queensland Country Women's Association, the Church of England Women's Guild, Brownies, Girl Guides, and Rotaryannes.

During her term as president of the CWA in 1959, membership was at a record high of 205 members; an achievement that was only surpassed by her pride in organising the annual CWA Flower Shows over two decades.

Her earlier years as a seamstress and designer in Adelaide gave her the skillset to design the first formal uniform for Town State Primary School in 1961.

Robert Sharp, school principal, was delighted with the designs.

A green, sleeveless uniform with a self-waist belt for girls and a short sleeved green shirt and brown shorts for boys, both uniforms had green and white striped edging on the collars with the school emblem on the breast pockets.

Elmer 's spirit of community service was still strong when at the tender age of 102, she was invited to officially open the Pine Rivers Show in which Pamela was carrying on the family commitment to community service.

When asked if she could open the show, Elmer articulately replied ... well, I think I can manage that!

Three years later In 2018, during the city's 95 th Birthday Talk, Pamela phoned and invited Elmer to say hello to old friends Kathy Swift, Barbara Fisher and Ann Morris; her call was a poignant reminder to everyone of the passing of time.

As Pamela proudly summed up, "Both my parents were active in the business, community and social life of Mount Isa.

"Their marriage wasn't a long one, only 26 years (Dad died in 1978), but it was a happy one.

"And Dad lovingly made Mum a cup of tea every morning; so, she did marry the right man and he had a car!"

Elma Meta Post Tadman was a woman of substance whose decorum, community spirit and whose love of Mount Isa never faded, even as she closed her eyes one last time on 28 January 2019; five short weeks from celebrating her 106th birthday.

Researched and written by Kim-Maree Burton

Information sourced from the Mt Isa Mail, Mount Isa CWA archives, the North West Star and Mrs Pam (Tadman) Lynham.

Photographs supplied by the North West Star and Pam Lynham's family album.