Bertha Brisbane grew up on a farm in country Queensland when the Great Depression and a long drought were making living conditions especially challenging.
Life was simple and hard work started young on the farm.
It took one hour in a horse and sulky to go shopping and the entertainment was hearing mum or granny recount stories of the family history.
Although Bertha was a top student, her family's circumstances meant a career in teaching was just a pipe dream and the closest she came was working as a governess.
Times were still tough and Bertha often had to help catch rabbits for dinner.
As a second generation Australian of Scottish, English and Irish heritage, Bertha was instilled with fear and loathing for non-whites. But her first lesson in multiculturalism came early and she has witnessed the slow cultural shift towards the kind of acceptance she came to experience first hand as a teenager.
At 19 she fell in love and married Elmer Skjonnemand, the son of Danish immigrants.
They had four children together, Peter, Paul, Max and John and their marriage lasted spanned 40 years.
For more than two decades, the couple ran a shop on the highway at Coomera.
Then when Elmer got sick with cancer and recurrent heart attacks, Bertha closed the shop and cared for him full time until his death in 1980. Bertha never showed any interest in remarrying.