Tuesday, 28 November 2023

Katherine Osborne

Danny PEARSON (Essendon – Minister for Transport Infrastructure, Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for WorkSafe and the TAC) (13:43): Katherine Osborne could swim, ride a bike, play chess and badminton, tackle a climbing wall, pitch a tent, cook a meal and play drums, guitar and piano. She was a captain in the school choir. She loved birds, flowers, cats, drawing, singing, talking to people, eating sushi and all things Japanese. She laughed a lot.

Academically she was good at everything but outstanding at science, computing, art and Japanese. She helped others with their homework. She often won prizes and was an all-As student, tracking ahead of the 88 ATAR that would get her into the design course at Melbourne University; she was enthusiastic after the open day.

Although she had started the transition from girl to young woman, she still spent a lot of time with her parents and took a childlike joy in small things. On Wednesdays they would usually walk out arm in arm to eat at one of the local Japanese restaurants she loved, and on the way home she might race them the last 100 metres to the house. On weekends she often went cycling or swimming or played badminton with her dad. On Sundays she made smoked salmon pancakes for brunch. She drew little sketches on her parents’ bookmarks for them to find later.

She attended her year 11 formal on Friday 10 March and was so happy on the following morning, when it all stopped. On a sunny Saturday lunchtime a car crashed into her parents’ car as it crossed an intersection on Lygon Street, Carlton. She sustained a catastrophic brain injury and spent four days on life support in the ICU before dying. Katherine was 16 years old.

Incorporated in accordance with resolution of house:

To say her parents were devastated would be an understatement and a cliché. She was their only child and their lives were destroyed. Others too – over two hundred people came to her funeral. What’s left is a minefield of memories, no-go areas as painful as they are happy.