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A BLACK mother with a white husband has given birth to twin girls of different colours in a million-to-one medical miracle.

In what is believed to be an Australian first, mum Natasha Knight, 35, of Jamaican-English heritage, and father Michael Singerl, 34, of German heritage, conceived the girls, one black and one white, naturally.

The couple also has a five-year-old daughter Taylah, who is blue-eyed with blonde hair and a light olive complexion.

The twins, Alicia and Jasmin, were born in Queensland's Caboolture Hospital in May.

Experts say the chance of twins being born with such different physical characteristics is about a million to one.

Ms Knight said she was shocked when she saw how different her daughters were.

"When they were born you could see there was a colour difference straight away. We couldn't believe it,'' she said.

"Alicia's eyes were brown and her hair was dark. Jasmin's eyes were blue and her hair was white - you could hardly see her hair or her eyebrows.

"We were joking when I was pregnant about what if one baby looked like me and one looked like Michael. We joked about one light one, one dark one, so it was amazing when it actually happened.''

Ms Knight said some people stop and stare when she's out with them.

"When we go out people stop and ask if they are twins. Other people will look but not say anything. Maybe they think I am babysitting one of them,'' she said.

"Someone even asked me if I was sure there wasn't a mix-up at the hospital. But there was no mix-up - they are my girls and they are both so beautiful.

"It will be interesting when they go to school, and they will probably wonder why they look so different from each other. I guess the easiest way to explain it will be to say one took after mum, one took after dad.''

Genetics experts say that in most cases a mixed-race woman's eggs will be a mixture of genes for both black and white skin.

However, much more rarely, the eggs may contain genes for predominantly one skin colour.

In this case, Ms Knight has released two such eggs - one with predominantly dark pigmentation genes and one with predominantly fair genes.

Non-identical twins are conceived when two eggs are fertilised by two sperm at the same time, which has odds in itself of about one hundred to one.