Meet Miss World Southbank

Locals always tell us how beautiful Southbank is and it seems the locals aren’t bad looking themselves.

Laura-Jane Corker lives in Southbank and has just made it through to the Miss World Australia national finals, to be held in the Hunter Valley.

Laura-Jane was one of 12 finalists from Victoria, and 30 overall, who will vie for the title in July.

Two years ago Laura-Jane made the top 10 and is determined to finish higher this time.

“I guess I’m back to try and take the crown!”

She also said she’s changed as a person over the last two years and is hopeful the extra life experience will hold her in good stead this time around.

“I’m much more grounded and more aware of where I’m at in my life. Last time I was studying and working part-time and living a hectic lifestyle. Now I’m working full-time and settled in my life.”

Originally from the northern Victorian town of Euroa, Laura-Jane said she was still very much a country girl at heart.

“I grew up on a farm so I’m a proper country girl.”

“I was such a tomboy, I still am I think. For a pageant you have to be all curls and tan and all that business, but I’m just as comfortable getting my hands dirty back at home on the farm,” Laura-Jane explained.

It’s at this point of the story I might as well break all the male reader’s hearts … Laura-Jane has a boyfriend and he encourages her beauty pageant endeavors.

“He’s very supportive, obviously. He gets to come along and watch 30 girls on stage. Of course he’s supportive!”

Laura-Jane said she loved living in Southbank and chose to live here even though she works in Brighton.

“It’s like its own little community, right here in the city,” she explained.

“A lot of my friends that are here are country kids too, so there must be something about the area that attracts us.”

If you’d like to help support Laura-Jane in her quest to become Miss World Australia you can send her a good luck message on our Facebook page Southbank Local News.