THE TELEGRAPH: Julia Gillard, a miner's daughter from South Wales, has become Australia's prime minister after a political coup to wrest control of the country from the beleaguered Kevin Rudd.
Julia Gillard, whose family left Barry as "Ten Pound Poms" when she was struck down with pneumonia at the age of five, was installed after the most eventful night in modern Australian politics.
Ms Gillard is the daughter of a coal miner and names Nye Bevan as one of greatest political inspirations. She says her start in life greatly influenced her leftist sensibilities and willingness to fight her corner.
Speaking in Canberra, Ms Gillard, 48, said she had challenged for the prime minister's job because "a good government had lost its way" and she did not want to see cuts in health and education if the opposition Liberal Party won the next election.
Watching their daughter make history by becoming the country's first female prime minister, John and Moira Gillard, who both still speak with thick Welsh accents, said that they were elated, but "mindful of the enormous job ahead of binding the party together."
Despite leaving the Vale of Glamorgan for Adelaide in 1966, Ms Gillard kept in close touch with the Barry community throughout her adolescence.
She returned to Wales when she was sixteen, spelling out her ambitions to her former neighbours during a one-week holiday.
Basil and Mabel Baker, who have known Ms Gillard since she was a baby, said that even as a teenager, she was intensely focused.
"I remember asking her 'So Julia, what do you want to do with your life? I suppose you want to get married and start a family'," Mr Baker, 91, said.
"Quick as a flash, she said to me 'Oh, I don't want to do that. I want a career and I want to get to the top. I've no time for marriage and kids'."
Still unmarried, but in a long-term relationship with hairdresser Tim Mathieson, Ms Gillard has gone on to achieve that goal, and more.
After starting life in a modest two-bedroom terrace in Barry, she now lives in a large home in the Melbourne suburb of Altona, and owns another flat in Canberra. >>> Bonnie Malkin in Sydney | Thursday, June 24, 2010
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