Tamika Smith nominated for The Courier-Mail Queenslander of the Year

Tamika Smith has been nominated for Queenslander of the Year after securing a home and land package for the children of Kelly Wilkinson, a young mum who was burned alive.

The tragic death of Kelly Wilkinson, allegedly at the hands of her estranged husband, brought the Gold Coast community to a stand still.

But for construction entrepreneur Tamika Smith, she jumped straight to action working to secure a home and land package for Kelly’s three young children aged between two and eight.

She has been nominated for The Courier-Mail Queenslander of the Year.

Ms Smith said she did not know Kelly, but was step siblings with Rhys Carroll, the husband of Kelly’s sister, Danielle Carroll who found themselves suddenly caring for eight young children.

“I was speaking to my mum and she was spending a bit of time with the kids and it was playing in my mind that this is going to be a huge financial burden for this family,” she said.

“Once I went and saw the kids, the decision was made pretty quickly.

Tamika Smith has been nominated for The Courier-Mail Queenslander of the Year. Picture: Nigel Hallett

“With the little girl holding my hand and calling me mummy, that was when I just went we’ve got to do something and I’m not going to lie dormant and let these kids think the world is a terrible place and we did nothing about it.”

Ms Smith, who owns My Bella Casa, TSR, and Top 100 Women who pioneered the I Stand For Kelly movement, enlisted the help of every willing developer and politician to find land for the family and secured a block within two days.

“I was like, we’re going, we’re building this house that’s it. I don’t care who’s coming or who’s not. I had every developer under the sun looking for land,” Ms Smith said.

Kelly Wilkinson was allegedly murdered by her estranged husband.

”When you know your values there’s no stopping someone who is really clear on their integrity, for me it’s the kids, I don’t want to let them grow up in a world where we just say we accepted what happened and we just move on to the next news story.”

Ms Smith said everything she had built was an extension of what she wanted to see in the world.

“People don’t just want the work they want to be a part of something great and what was so uplifting about this story is we got to see that everyone wanted hope, that there are good people and good things in the world in among so much tragedy with what’s happened.”