Born at Croydon Park to Claude and Mona Lord on February 24, 1930, she was educated at St Mel's Catholic School, Santa Sabina College and Sydney Teachers' College. This provided her with an extensive education, a love of literature and drama, and a willingness to stand up in front of a group of people and speak her mind.

Moira met Jim Collins at a dance while at Teacher's College and she said the attraction was mutual. It took only three months for them to decide their partnership should be life-long. The actual engagement took a little longer as Moira was a Catholic and Jim wasn't. The wedding took place at St Mel's Church in Campsie in 1950.

Jim was teaching at Bega High School and so Moira, as a primary teacher, tried to get an appointment in town, but all the Department could offer her was teaching at Cobargo Primary School, so Jim used to catch a bus out there after class. Then Moira was given the Opportunity Class in Bega and so they moved into town.

They had to live in a variety of bed and breakfast accommodation for some years until they could save up to buy some land at Daisy Hill, Springvale. With the permission of the owner Jim cut down trees on Dr George Mountain and set up a timber mill at Reedy Swamp. At first at Daisy Hill they lived in a two-room garage, but slowly Jim managed to build a house from the timber he felled.

At Bega High School Moira taught the Opportunity Class - special education, physical education and sports, and resigned when she gave birth to Michael in 1955. Then came Beth, Jenny and Nicola. Their living conditions were fairly primitive with water pumped from the river with a fuel stove providing hot water.

They bought more land and started a dairy farm, Grevillea, with Jim building the dairy. Moira reared calves and was the primary force in operating the dairy, milking the cows day and night while Jim was still teaching. Over the years they worked closely with Harry Kemp, local agronomist, on the latest improvements in dairy farming. They had a walk-through dairy, with vacuum plant, machine milking. They separated their milk, using skim for calves and through this generated enough money to pay off their loan. They designed and established a low cost irrigation system on their farm which was revolutionary at the time.

Moira was the first local woman to do artificial insemination on dairy cattle. She had a 70 per cent success rate, but found it difficult to buy semen from Jersey cows so they changed to Friesians.

In the early 60s Moira became heavily involved in dairy industry politics. She re-instituted the Bega branch of the Australian Primary Producers' Union in 1961. She served as a member of the executive of the NSW Dairy Industry Conference and the Bega Dairy Farmers' Action group, attending meetings in Sydney as the local representative.

Not content with that, Moira was then elected to the Executive of NSW Dairy Farmers - a position she held for 12 years in a time when woman were usually seen as merely supporters of males on the farm. From that position she mobilised literally an army of farmers from the north coast to the Riverina to protest at Parliament House on milk quotas and prices.

Megaphone in hand, she marched up and down, loudly proclaiming the rights of farmers to the nation, while milk was poured from a tanker into the streets of Sydney. The battle was won in 1976 for rural farmers to have a share of the Sydney milk market. Moira rarely if ever backed down from a fight where she saw injustice or an issue that could be fixed.

Campaigning about the state of our rural roads led to a four-year stint on Mumbulla Shire Council and, of course, she did get the funding needed to fix the roads

A long-standing member of the Labour Party for 60 years, Moira saw this as a way of working with politicians to achieve for the valley and community. She was never disillusioned, but always looked for windows of opportunity to push for what she saw as right and good.

In 1979 she was appointed to the Bega District Hospital Board and served on it until 1993 when it was amalgamated with other boards to form the South Coast Health Service. She was treasurer of the Board in the financial years ending 1984, 1989 and 1990, vice chairman in 1985 and chairman from 1986 to 1988.

She constantly pushed for the rights of nurses and the need to upgrade the facilities. A rally in Littleton Gardens attracted over 3000 people and forced the Department, which was based in Goulburn, to listen and provide the funds for the hospital. Once again she was on a megaphone demanding that bureaucrats and politicians listen to the people. At this time in her life she was gaining a reputation as a stirrer.

In the late 70s into 80s both Moira and Jim were heavily involved in local conservation and the major campaign to save the South East forests. These protest rallies attracted environmentalists from across the nation, sometimes up to 1000 people. She was twice arrested with stints in Cooma and Eden gaols. They initially succeeded in saving 90,000 hectares, and to their surprise and delight the area was increased to a 130,000 hectares of wilderness areas.

In the 80s Moira saw the sorry state of the disability services and with Jim, once again stirred up the local community to establish Tulgeen where she served as a volunteer and on the Board for a number of years. Tulgeen to this day is a testament to the power of people and community and the willingness of a few to have a vision and just do it.

When the family opened Grevillea Winery in 1986, Moira worked behind the bar welcoming visitors from around the nation and the world to our small community. She loved this role and thrived in the social context organising bus loads of tourists and running the commercial side of this business. Even in this role she took on fundraising for the people of Chernobyl and continued this for many years.

In the 2000s when most people at 75-80 were putting up their feet, she along with Jim, became involved in Timor Leste, setting up the Advocates group and dedicating time as secretary and their financial resources to helping the people of Natabora.

When Moira moved into Hillgrove House, she still continued writing letters to the Editor of the BDN, a practice she had started way back when Curly Annabel was editor some 50 years before. Even in her last days she continued to order the local paper as her way of knowing what was happening in her local community. Days before she died, she was heard announcing to one of the carers who had asked if she could feed her "I've got hands, haven't I?"

She did indeed - hands and a voice to accomplish a lifetime of work.

Moira was recognised as a state finalist in the 1977 ABC Rural Woman of the Year in NSW. She received a Rotary International Award and was honoured with a Bega Valley Citizen of the Year in 2010.

She had her faults. She was a very bad driver, and an absolutely terrible cook and thought housework a waste of time.

But Moira loved her children, her grandchildren and her face would light up like a beacon when she saw her great grandchildren. She is survived by Jim, Michael and Cathy, Beth, Jenny and Russell, Nicky and Wayne, seven grandchildren - Dan, Jasmine, Roland, Coralie, David, Drew and Sarah and 17 great-grandchildren.

Moira has left a legacy of love in her community and an inspiration that says - if you've the passion for a cause, just get on with it.