John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I want to celebrate the achievements of Byron Bay resident and champion tennis player, Margaret Fisher. Margaret Fisher has competed on the grass courts of Wimbledon and has played in the prestigious Queen's Club Tournament, the Dutch Open and the British Open. She is the current Australian super-senior women's singles and doubles champion and recently became the mixed doubles silver medallist at the super-seniors world championships in Umag, Croatia. Margaret's recent success in Croatia was a great achievement, made more remarkable by the fact that she is a retired pensioner who has reached the venerable age of 82.

When Margaret was a young girl growing up in country New South Wales she dreamed of one day playing at Wimbledon. In her early twenties, working as a teacher in Grafton, she saved every penny for four years to get to London, to be one step closer to realising her dream. The journey from Sydney to Tilbury, in those days by sea, took 45 days, stopping in Perth, Ceylon, Bombay, Aden, through the Suez Canal to Marseilles, and finally Tilbury, England—quite an adventure for a young woman travelling alone.

Margaret worked as a relief teacher on week days and battled it out on tennis courts all over the UK on weekends—finally working her way into qualifying and so securing her place at Wimbledon. Margaret had realised her dream.

After qualifying, late one evening Margaret crept on to Wimbledon's centre court and celebrated by dancing barefoot on the hallowed turf. She also, very cheekily, dug up a clump of grass from behind the baseline as a souvenir, and that souvenir still takes pride of place on her coffee table and is a constant reminder of that great time in her life—February, 1953.

Playing at Wimbledon and living in London was a magical experience for Margaret. She was given two new state-of-the-art tennis racquets by the Slazenger company, rubbed shoulders with London's fashion elite, was reprimanded for failing to attend a garden party hosted by the Queen in the Queen's coronation year but was chauffeured to and from Wimbledon in a Rolls Royce.

Margaret bowed out of the tournament losing to the 10th seeded American, Barbara Davidson, in the first round—but she had achieved her goal.

Margaret returned to Australia and settled in to work and to raise four children. She always managed to keep tennis in her life but could not find the time to play tournament tennis again until her retirement.

In 2010 her brother convinced Margaret to play in the super-seniors tennis championship on the Gold Coast. Surprising even herself, after many years of not picking up a racquet, Margaret finished runner-up in the singles, inspiring her to take on the world championships in Turkey later that year.

Margaret baked cakes for local markets, held raffles with prizes donated by local businesses and saved every dollar to get herself to Turkey. She played hard and finished runner-up in the over-80s women's singles. Coming so close to taking out the title only hardened her resolve. Margaret was determined to battle it out for the world over-80s title again, this time in Croatia this year.

After a 40-hour journey—this time by air and much shorter than her journey to Europe 59 years before—Margaret arrived by bus in the city of Umag, a small city on the Adriatic coast of Croatia, the venue of the 2012 super-seniors world championship. Despite bowing out of the singles competition, Margaret won a silver medal in the over-80s mixed doubles with Sydney resident, Doug Corbett. 'You're never too old to learn, Margaret said after returning from Croatia.

She lamented that, while she had practised enough and was certainly fit enough in her preparation, she simply had not been able to play enough tennis under tournament conditions. Nonetheless, Margaret was certainly thrilled to walk away with a medal.

Mr Deputy President, as well as paying tribute to Margaret's performances on the tennis court, I would also like to acknowledge her contribution to the Australian community—particularly in the field of education. As an educator, Margaret has pioneered maths and reading centres, and English-as-a-second-language pilots in Australian schools. She was a very able and committed educator and was respected by students and colleagues alike.

Margaret also became well known and well respected around this place after she embarked on a new career path as a staffer to various federal ministers, MPs and senators during the late 1980s and early 90s. I am one of those who can attest to her high standards, competence and dedication. Many would know Margaret's daughter Virginia Dale—also a long-term staffer in Parliament House currently working in foreign minister Senator Carr's office.

Since the world championships, Margaret has been recuperating at home in Byron Bay. Inspired by the story of the great Rod Laver, she says she is already planning her next attempt at the super-seniors world title next year. I want to take this opportunity tonight to wish her well and to congratulate her for these wonderful achievements. She really is an inspiration to us all.

Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I trust there is a statute of limitations in relation to the turf that was removed!