Alan Rawle Coad was born in England and educated at Trinity College Cambridge, graduating in the natural sciences in 1940. During the Second World War he served in the British and Indian Armies and was active service for four years in India and Burma. In 1950 he migrated to Australia and from 1953-57 was on the staff of the Chemical Engineering Department of the Royal Melbourne Technical College.

From 1961-69, Alan Coad worked for the Victorian State Rivers and Water Supply Commission, based in Pyramid Hill and Shepparton, before setting up his own ground water business which he ran until 1972. He then moved to the Research Department of the Sewerage Division of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works until his retirement in 1982. His interest in salinity consumed his retirement years and led to the establishiment of Australian Draining Land Improvement and Reclamation (ADLIR) Pty Ltd which ran small reclamation consultancies, mostly in north-central Victoria.