STAN COSTER

Stan Coster was born at Casino on the north coast of New South Wales, Australia in 1930. One of seven children, each of whom were musically talented. He left school at the age of 14 and worked for a local butcher in Woolgoolga, NSW. By the age of 16, he was cutting sleepers for train tracks and at 18 years of age he went to work as a station hand before moving to Sydney and in 1948 moved to Cooma, New South Wales, to work on the Snowy Mountains Scheme. In 1950, at age 20, Coster joined a travelling rodeo as a rough rider and in 1951 he married Dorothy Aileen Milto, with whom he had three children, including country music singer Tracy Coster.

In 1956, Coster began writing songs and met Slim Dusty in 1960 at Longreach, Queensland. Dusty recorded his first Coster song, “Return of the Stockman” in 1962. Dusty went on to record another 70 of Stan Coster tracks. In 1977, Coster won the Golden Guitar for APRA Song of the Year with his composition “Three Rivers Hotel”, recorded by Slim Dusty. While on the land Coster worked as a ringer, fencer, slaughterman, horse-breaker, kangaroo shooter, and shed hand and was able to draw these experiences into his bush ballads. Popular compositions such as his "Three Rivers Hotel", which tells the story of building a train line into a remote nickel mine, were based on his own life experiences and brought to popular attention through performances and recordings by Slim Dusty and other artists.

In later life, Coster moved to Tamworth, New South Wales and then to nearby Manilla. In the late 1970s, he began his singing career at Joe Maguire's Pub (now known as the Tattersall's Hotel). His first album 'My People' appeared in 1979 on the Opal label and all the tracks were written by Stan. Further albums were: 'Songs From A Wanderer's Pen' (Opal 1981), 'The Song Maker' (Opal 1982), This 'Big Old Land (Nulla 1983)'. He appeared in the 1984 feature film The Slim Dusty Movie and in that year formed his own record label, Gidgee Records and continued to release albums.

In 1987, Coster won another Golden Guitar for APRA Song of the Year for “He’s a Good Bloke When He’s Sober”. In 1989 he was awarded an OAM for Services to Country Music and was in 1990 inducted into the Roll of Renown at Tamworth. He won the 1995 Golden Guitar (Heritage Award) for Bush Ballad Song of the Year with “Lawson’s Loaded Dog” and in 1996 released his last album 'Come Back to the Bush'. Stan Coster died from cancer on 25 March 1997 at Manilla. A Bronze bust featuring his image was unveiled in Tamworth’s Bicentennial Park in 1999.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Coster