Emily Barnett’s family remember 21-year-old two years after tragic Bruce Highway crash

Rockhampton woman Emily Barnett was tragically killed in a road crash on the Bruce Highway. Not a day goes by that her family doesn’t miss her. Here is her life story.

May 29 marked two years since 21-year-old Emily Barnett died in a horror crash on the Bruce Highway just south of Rockhampton.

When Emily Barnett was about nine years old, all she ate for two months was sultanas.

She was determined to win a pink and white bicycle in a competition by Sunbeam.

And, out of all the entries from people across Australia, young Emily from Rockhampton did win.

From a young age, she was the kind of girl who would have a go at anything.

She was a firecracker, determined, funny and was “pretty happy go lucky”.

These stories are some of the most treasured memories her family have when remembering her.

This Sunday, May 29, marked the two year anniversary of when Emily died in a tragic road crash south of Rockhampton.

Emily was travelling to Gladstone in her Toyota Rav4 with her friend Emily Reid when a Mitsubishi Triton crossed to the wrong side of the road and collided head on with the Rav4.

Emily Barnett was pronounced deceased at the scene and her friend Emily Reid was rushed to hospital where she remained for some time, having sustained life changing injuries.

The other driver was New South Wales man Peter Martin, who was airlifted in a critical condition with extensive internal injuries and multiple fractures.

Mr Martin, 58, was charged with two counts of drive without due care and attention and was sentenced in a Sunshine Coast court in April 2022 to six months prison, suspended immediately for two years.

The moment the police were on the doorstep of the Barnett family’s home at Alton Downs will be something they will never forget.

While it has been two years, it feels like it was yesterday.

“It’s something that no parent wants to hear, not even a parent … no one wants to hear that someone has passed away,” mum Stacy said.

“It’s not that you feel numb, I think you feel lost, especially being a child, it’s like part of you dies with them.

“Because we saw her grow up, we saw her get her licence, we saw her finish school, we saw her ride her first bike and she had so much more to give.

Emily was the eldest of Adrian and Stacy Barnett’s four children.

“A piece of us died that day … You’re just in a daze,” Dad Adrian said.

Emily was the eldest of four children, two sisters named Ashlee and Jordan and a brother Alex.

“It didn’t really hit me on the day, hearing the news is something else, you just go into a state of disbelief,” sister Jordan said.

The day Emily died was a Fatality Free Friday, a campaign for drivers to take more care on the roads.

Stacy had picked up Jordan from high school and was in the car when they heard about the crash on the radio, unbeknownst to them at the time their Emily was involved.

“Usually I don’t even bring them up … but at that time I said isn’t that terrible, this is the second one (fatality) this week, that poor family,” Stacy said.

She finished work and went home, asked the other siblings if they had spoken to Emily that day because her phone was smashed and Stacy didn’t have a way of contacting her.

Emily has been described as a firecracker, determined, funny and “happy go lucky”.

Then the police pulled up at their home.

“Just gut wrenching,” were the words Dad Adrian used to describe the moment he found out his oldest daughter had died.

The weeks following Emily’s passing were some of the toughest times.

“Before she passed we all had our birthdays within six, seven weeks, four of us had birthdays and one was a major birthday … Just knowing she wouldn’t be there to celebrate those times,” Stacy said.

“For me Mother’s Day is very hard because I think that’s when it clicks for me, that the anniversary is coming closer.

“Just talking about her, like when people ask what happened, you just can’t talk about it.”

A harsh reality to face is life moves on after a loved one passes, and it moves on without them.

Emily’s family shared fond memories of her including when she won a new bike from a competition on a sultana box.

“Ashlee and Jordan might get married and have kids …. Emily will always be 21,” Stacy said.

“Emily will never do all those things … I think that’s the hardest thing for a parent.

“She got to that age … you’ve brought them up the best you can and you hope the best you can for them, you hope you‘ve guided them enough but then you never see them go any further with their lives.”

The second eldest child, Ashlee, will turn 22 in July.

“Ashlee will officially be older than Emily soon, she will have outlived her sister,” Jordan said.

“It’s weird to think at some point I will be older than my big sister.

“She’s always going to be my big sister but she’s always going to be 21.”

The family home has gone from a four-bedroom house to a three bedroom, with Emily’s door respectfully closed.

Emily Barnett & Andrew Ramm. Photo Contributed

“I’ve just left it for now … I’ve gone in there a couple of times, I’m not ready,” Stacy said.

The loss of Emily has affected each family member in their own way.

“We all miss her in our own way,” Stacy said.

“(It’s been) very difficult, just not the same person anymore, just don’t feel you‘re the same person… You stop living life, you’re just going through the motions,” Dad Adrian said.

“You wake up every morning wishing it was a dream, it was a nightmare, something that didn‘t happen but you realise it was reality.

“They say time heals all wounds but I don’t agree with that at all.

“You just have to try and work out how to live with it, but the scar is always there.”

Little things you wouldn’t think of like signing a birthday card have been hard.

“When people go how many children do you have, I have four but you don’t, you only have three … To send a birthday card to someone I find very hard, I just put from us and the family, I used to write the kids names, they used to sign off as the fantastic four,” Stacy said.

“Even when we got the cards when she died … not seeing her name on it, only seeing the two parents names and the three kids,” Jordan said.

Speaking to this publication in the days before the anniversary, the family shared some of their fondest memories of their beloved Emily.

Emily was on her way to Gladstone to check on her house at the time of the crash.

On weekends Emily would often sit and watch her Dad work on cars and he taught her how to check her oil and that sort of thing.

“She bought a Jeep once, this was the sort of person was … she loved this red Jeep … I fixed it up, took me months, did a radiator, I got it all done,” Adrian said.

“She jumped in and couldn’t reach the pedals.

“I said didn’t you even check this car and take it for a test drive or anything, she said no I just liked the look of it.

“So she bought a car she couldn’t even reach the pedals and had to sell it.

“She was our oldest daughter but she was also the shortest.”

Emily was savvy with her money, she had already bought a house in Gladstone but she could be a real “scrooge” her sister said.

“She used to come borrow my clothes so she didn’t have to spend any money,” Jordan said.

Her car was pride and joy, she had just put new tyres and a windscreen on it in the week before the crash.

“She used to say do you want to do something fun … and her idea of fun was we would go (to the car wash) and vacuum her car,” Jordan said.

Emily was described as a ‘homebody’ and a ‘joker’.

“She used to time it and make you vacuum faster because she didn't want to spend any more money.”

One day, Jordan was meant to be doing school work from home during Covid, but the two sisters decided to change a light bulb in Jordan’s room.

What should have been a quick job took the girls four hours and two trips into town, which is a 20 minute drive one way.

“We spent ages unscrewing one of the other sides and once we pulled it out we realised that this other one pulled out and we had to go back into town to buy super glue to glue this bit back in … it was just funny,” Jordan said.

Emily was a joker but sometimes the jokes weren’t that funny, they were just her own private jokes.

She was a real homebody, she would go out with her friends but she wasn’t into the partying scene.

“She would give anything a go, even though she struggled through school, she was very determined,” Stacy said.

Determination was what won her the pink bike from the Sunbeam sultana competition.

“She said I am winning the bike and I said to her there‘s probably millions of kids in Australia entering,” Stacy said.

“She just kept entering … She had to eat the sultanas and send the barcodes off, it was all she ate at school for two months.”

She was a champion at colouring in, she would win all the Fitzroy Shire Council competitions.

Emily’s family said there’s not a day that goes by where they don’t think about her.

“She used to be the best at colouring in, she could colour in anything, she used to get it all in the lines and it was spot on,” Stacy said.

There’s not a day goes by that her family doesn’t think of her.

“I see a number plate with her name on it or the Coles truck with Emily, I always think she's there, it’s a sign she’s saying hello … she (Emily) would say get on with it … It’s easier said than done.”

In 2021, there were 1,123 road crash deaths reported in Australia, an increase of 2.6 per cent on the previous year.

“I don’t think you’ll ever stop road accidents, there’s always so many crashes,” Stacy said.

“Most times it’s human error … I used to do delivery driving and I would see so many near misses … When I came into town this afternoon, someone was texting.

“I think I notice more of that now more than ever.”

Emily had been driving to Gladstone to check on her house there when the crash happened.

“It’s a simple thing, going to collect your mail …. Look what can happen,” Stacy said.

If there was such a thing as a time machine, the family would turn back time and get their Emily back.

Sadly, that’s not possible.

“No one gets to choose the day you go … that’s just life,” Stacy said.

“I just think it’s sad, and it’s sad it happened on that Friday (Fatality Free Friday).

“It’s been a whirlwind, a journey and we’re still on it, it will always be with us but each of us learn to cope a lot better.”