Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Sometimes the most compelling thing that we can do in this parliament is to faithfully recount the stories of everyday Australians. I want to tell the story today of a postwar immigrant from the Netherlands, Carolina Augustina Knappstein, who passed away on 30 July, aged 90. Although she didn't talk about her past much, she called herself a survivor. In the first year of World War II her father disappeared, presumed taken in the Nazi occupation of Holland. He was never heard from again. Carolina's mother then had a nervous breakdown, so Carolina, the oldest daughter of 10 children, one just a newborn, was left to raise her brothers and sisters throughout the war. She was only 13. The next year, in the middle of that Nazi occupation of Holland, it was one of near starvation and freezing cold. There was no electricity, no running water, no social welfare. Food rations were a quarter of a loaf of bread per person per week. By all huddling together, the family survived that winter. Many others did not.

In the decade after the war, Carolina and most of her siblings moved away from Holland to the other side of the world. They left everything behind them, the good and the bad, and they made Australia their new home. Later on and married, Carolina suffered no fewer than 10 miscarriages and stillbirths. She said that going through a full-term labour knowing that the baby was already dead was one of the hardest things she ever went through. She was probably right to believe that her problems having children and many of her later health problems stemmed from that year of malnutrition as a child facing the horrors of war.

Despite all those challenges she'd faced she had great optimism and a zest for life. She ran small businesses here in Australia, she helped establish a Rotary branch, she gave back to her community and she always believed that setbacks were temporary. Her catchphrase, repeated thousands of times, was, 'Make the best of what you've got.' As a result, she was one the most contented people you could ever meet. She was proud of her Dutch heritage and, equally, a proud Australian. Like millions of others in that era, she made that big decision to migrate to Australia on the other side of the world.

Those decisions, the hard work and the sacrifices made by so many postwar migrants have made Australia what it is today. Their legacy is that their children and future generations have some of the best opportunities and brightest futures of almost anyone, anywhere, in the world. Today I pay tribute to the memory of a great woman. She overcame obstacles. She found love and hope in this world. She built a brighter future for herself and those around her. Rest in peace, my grandmother.