Russell Broadbent (McMillan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I had the pleasure recently to be at Wonthaggi for Nell Dolphin’s 100th birthday. Why is Nell Dolphin so important? A 100th birthday is a treasured time for a family. I was there not only as the federal member but, more importantly, as a friend of the family. My mother and Nell Dolphin were good mates. Nell Dolphin has a very special story to tell. She was asked by her pursuing suitor at the age of 25 to marry him. She waited a while. She ran off and married him when she was 70—the same man.

She was the proprietor of the Corinella store when I got to know her. Corinella was a very small hamlet on the edge of Westernport Bay that had just the general store and nothing else, and very few residents. It had so few residents that Nell only ever had one or two people working for her. You would know about that, Mr Deputy Speaker Adams: in Tasmania there would be areas like that today, as there are in some parts of Gippsland. Specially, every now and then the ferry would leave Cowes and come to the Corinella Pier, and 120 people would get off the boat and come to Nell’s store for an ice-cream, lollies, a cake or whatever. It was a cup of tea in those days, probably. The local community would all rush down to Nell’s store to serve behind the counter, to serve the 120 people.

Nell today is in a nursing home, but she was well enough to hear the whole of my address the other day. She was surrounded by her family members. Nell did not have any children herself, of course, but her sister did, and the representatives of the family were there. There were two people at the function who actually worked in the Corinella store with Nell. There were more than 150 people gathered for the 100th birthday afternoon tea.

Nell Dolphin not only is a friend of Corinella but has spent a long time in Green Hills. She has written her own book about her life. Not many people do that. In her corner store—I call it a corner store because my grandfather owned a corner store—they did not have electricity until 1956. Imagine what it was like to be running a business in those days using dry ice and ice to keep cool what you needed to keep cool. We live in a generation that does not remember all this, although I do remember the ice van coming to Lang Lang foreshore—which is just down from Corinella—when we were young children camping there.

Nell’s 100th birthday was significant because it reminded us of an era that was totally different to that in which we live today. There are parts of Australia, of course, that are remote. Imagine how remote Corinella was in those days. This woman, Nell Dolphin, was able to run that business for more than 50 years. She had a legacy of friends that came from all over Gippsland for this very special 100th birthday. In her time, it went from draft horses to Fergie tractors. It went from milking cows by hand to electricity, which came eventually to Gippsland but not to Corinella until after 1956, when Nell had the first refrigerator in her store.

Nell’s relations today run a very special nursery, located just past Pakenham in Gippsland. It was terrific that the four generations of her family were there for her 100th birthday. I say: Nell Dolphin, what a wonderful 100th birthday. The first thing she did on seeing me was to ask, ‘Russell, would you thank the wonderful carers I have here in Wonthaggi?’ Her first thoughts were for those who were looking after her. Once again I say: Nell Dolphin, an amazing Australian resident.