Reception for the Springfield Community

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is Kaye’s and my great pleasure to welcome you all to Government House tonight, as we gather to acknowledge Greater Springfield’s now indispensable contributions to the economic and social fabric of our great State. 

For much of its early life, this very estate, Fernberg – built for German-born merchant Johann Heussler 151 years ago in 1865 – was accessible only via a long, winding dirt track, somewhat isolated and distant from the main Brisbane hub.

Today, it is very much enmeshed within our capital’s vibrant suburban reach – indeed it is considered ‘central’.

Our society has a tendency to view 150 years as a rather long time.

But in the life of a city, in the life of a nation, or, as our Indigenous co-citizens continue to demonstrate, in the life of a culture, 150 years is a relatively short period.  

Which makes the meteoric rise of Greater Springfield – from 2,800 hectare patch of largely scrub and thicket to today’s vibrant, energetic metropolitan communities – in just under 25 years, all the more remarkable.

What Maha Sinnathamby and Bob Sharpless would have called a “vision” for Springfield in 1992 when they purchased the land around Opposum Creek, others I suspect called a “hallucination”!

But their persistence, and that of their highly effective team, has really benefited our State – economically and socially – particularly so for the 130,000 Queenslanders expected to call Springfield home by 2030, and the businesses and community organisations, many of whom are represented here tonight, who have invested – not without some risk – in Springfield’s future.

Kaye and I have officially visited Springfield now twice: the first in December last year to open the new Mater Private Hospital, and for a memorable lunch with the Springfield Land Corporation. The second visit was to open the ‘Embedding Indigenous Knowledge’ Showcase at the Hymba Yumba Community Hub.

We have been impressed by Greater Springfield’s amenity, and its emerging and distinctive forward-thinking polity.

These successes are in no small way attributable to all of you here tonight – our Mayor and Councillors, our Chairman and Springfield Land Corporation board and staff, business representatives, community leaders, those from Greater Springfield’s frankly impressive health and education institutions – Kaye and I thank you all.

May we continue tonight then to recognise and encourage visionary leadership, across the public and private spheres, for the benefit of the people of our great State. Thank you.