Longreach Community Light Lunch

Mr Mayor; fellow Councillors; wonderful people of Longreach. It is a great honour to join you all today in this impressively conceived precinct, officially opened in 1988 by Her Majesty The Queen, whom I am now so privileged to represent in our State. 

I at once acknowledge the traditional owners of these lands and extend respectful greetings to Elders and emerging leaders.

It is a great honour to be back in Longreach. 

My pride as a former resident has never waned – in fact, it has increased with each subsequent visit, as Chief Justice, and now four times as Governor. 

It has been an immense privilege to chart the town’s progress through my many interactions with its wonderful people.  

I am here as part of a three-day Western Queensland tour of Birdsville, Winton and Longreach. Today I re-visited my alma mater (Longreach State School), received a briefing from the Mayor and Councillors, designated former Mayors as official ‘Longreach Ambassadors’, and toured the QANTAS Founders Museum, honouring the airline’s centenary.

My enduring observations are of a proud town, and a people whose lives are richly lived. 

The wider Queensland people sense this when they visit. It is part of your gift to our State. 

If there is hoping to be had in this awful pandemic, it’s that many more Queenslanders will venture out here to sense it for themselves. I have heard on my visit of green shoots in this respect.  

I am truly delighted such a broad cross-section of vibrant Longreach life could be here today.

The numbers were capped by the necessary restrictions of the times. 

But know that you, and the wonderful organisations you represent, have my full support. 

I very much look forward to meeting many of you throughout the course of this light lunch.  

Thank you, on behalf of all Queenslanders, for all you do to advance this very special Queensland town.