Spotlight on: Corinne Tomasi, Candidate for Division 1, Wellington Point

I was born and have spent all but one year of my 48 years of life living in Wellington Point.  I grew up with two brothers, Stuart and James.

My dad worked for the railway and my mum was a businesswoman.  They met in Wello where my dad’s family had a holiday house.

Mum’s family, the Gorrings have lived here over seven generations.  My great great Grandfather had a pineapple farm on Main Road and that’s where my Da (great grandfather), Reg, was born.   My Da was a carpenter and I was 13 when he died so I still have very clear memories of him.  He was a beautiful man and many people I meet when door-knocking still remember him.

Da built quite a lot of homes such as the old Uniting Church.  He was buried there but 12 months later, it burned down.  That site is now the location of units.

Five generations of the Gorring Clan.  

In my early years I went to Wellington Point State School until Grade 5, before moving to Ormiston State School and then high school was spent at Mt Carmel College in Wynnum.

So you can see, my family has a very long connection to this area.

Back when I was young, Redlands was a big farming community as everyone knows.  In fact, I remember some kids at school used to be dropped off by tractor and many didn’t even wear shoes!

I enjoyed an idealistic childhood climbing the tracks at Wellington Point  and exploring the rock pools at Wellington Point Beach.   Like all my family I learned to swim at Wello. If you didn't come home with red feet and a red bottom you hadn’t had a great day!

After I finished school, my day job was as a Secretary for a lawyer but I wasn’t particularly good.  At night I used to sing at bars, clubs and private functions, sometimes for charity.

Mum says that I could sing before I could talk.  I have always had a very strong voice and, as I grew up in a very musical family, my singing was always encouraged. 

In fact, back around 1978 from memory I cam first in the Queensland Youth of the Year music competition.  I beat this young boy called Keith Urban.   Look where Keith is and look where Corinne is – yes, I know!

One of the biggest influences in my life is my mum.  She is a person who will pretty much have a go at anything and, over the years, she’s run several shops including a gift shop, antique shop and a dress shop.  She also ran the Clevetown Motel in Ormiston.  

She is and always has been a very progressive, forward-thinking woman who has brought me up to believe that there is nothing women can’t do.

My whole family has been told that it is better to have a go and give it your best shot rather than die wondering – so we rarely say die.  We  will give most things a go – like mum.

Mum was also one of the first members of the Redlands Museum and, as it turned out this would lead to one of the pivotal decisions in our lives.

As a volunteer for the Museum, she was asked to go for a tour Whepstead.  At the time, it was a private home, two families lived there and had just been closed as a convalescent home – the Bayview Convalescent Home it was called and many older residents will remember it.  

Anyway, Mum went up there with this tour, and discovered that the people who owned it at the time were going to sell it.   She was informed that they believed they would get more money if it was demolished.  

My mum didn’t like that idea at all so, when she came home that day, she told my dad and my granddad that we had to save it.

At that time, the family lived in the old house that was once the home of the local blacksmith in Wellesley Street in Wello Point.   Mum always felt she had saved that house’s life by choosing to do it up.

 (That house is no longer there and has since been subdivided into four blocks.  It was moved out   out somewhere in Toowoomba.  She lived there - felt saved that house’s life.)

Anyway, Mum put that house on the market and then Mum and Dad and my Papa bought Whepstead.  They paid $64,000 in 1977.

So when I was 10 I found myself living in this old house with two rooms downstairs set aside for a restaurant which my parents ran so they could afford to fund what turned out to be a massive renovation.

I would like to think my family saved the life of that Home, too.

Today I am married with four children:  Georgia, James, Ava and Chiara.  I also have a grandson, Harry who's basically the boss.I work in my husband’s carpentry business and also sell a bit of jewellery on the side – to be honest it probably justifies my habit for bling.

I am very proud of my roots and the contributions I feel my family have made to this area.

My family continues to live in the Redlands and wish to see the next generations be afforded the wonderful lifestyle I had.

I am running for Division 1 because, as I said, my mother taught me to have a go.

I ran for this seat in 2012 and lost by just 90 votes.  Who knows?  This year could be the year when the residents of Division 1 realise that I am the positive change it needs in seizing the future.