Afternoon Tea in Support of Balonne Shire Community

Balonne Shire Council Mayor, Councillor Samantha O’Toole and Acting CEO, Mr Graeme Kanofski PSM; Queensland Symphony Orchestra Chair, Mr Rob Pilbeam; members of the Balonne Shire community; welcome.

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around St George, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and all First Nations people with us this afternoon.

Graeme and I are delighted that so many of you have been able to join us for afternoon tea today – community events like this are an important part of my role as Governor because they give me the opportunity to speak directly to Queenslanders about the things that are important to them.

Today, we have reached out to the people of the Balonne Shire through an enormous variety of channels: schools; health workers; sporting clubs; the clergy; the fire, ambulance and police services; community organisations; Indigenous leaders; local producers; and businesses.

The result is truly representative of the district, and Graeme and I are looking forward to meeting and chatting to as many of you as possible during our time together.

I am particularly pleased to be making my first official visit to the Balonne Shire since my appointment as Governor in November 2021, but St George is certainly no stranger to Vice-Regal visits.

The very first Queensland Governor to visit St George was Sir William MacGregor, 112 years ago. His Vice-Regal entourage had intended to stop only briefly in St George en route from Yuleba to Thallon, but the roads were so rough and their progress so slow that they decided to stay overnight in St George.

The response of the community was typical of country Queensland – they calmly mustered 130 school children to greet the Governor and quickly convened a public welcome that night in the Commercial Hotel.

And at this point I’d like to note that while we may not be meeting in a this afternoon, we are joined by a publican of some note in Mr Steve Burns. Mr Burns, whom many of you will know as ‘Burnsy’, was in 2018 awarded the status of Royal Flying Doctor Service ‘Local Hero’ for his generosity and fundraising prowess, with his Nindigully Pub donating over $300,000 to the RFDS. As the Patron of RFDS in Queensland, I wish to thank Mr Burns personally — and on behalf of your community — for your support of this vital service.

In 1921, the Balonne received its second Vice-Regal visitor, Sir Matthew Nathan. Sir Matthew was a great champion of women and a particularly keen supporter of the work of the QCWA.

When he returned to St George in 1925 and saw the sorry state of the hospital building, he expressed the opinion that, had the CWA been in existence earlier, St George would already have had a new hospital.

But by far the most frequent Vice-Regal visitor to St George was Sir Leslie Wilson.  Our longest-serving Governor, and a former soldier, he and Lady Wilson visited St George three times during his 14-year term.

They both understood the importance of visiting communities to support organisations like the Red Cross and bolster the spirits of returned soldiers – and the families of those who didn’t return.

Vice-Regal support for the Red Cross and other organisations in the Shire continued after World War II when Sir John Lavarack, Wilson’s successor as Governor, attended a fund-raising debutante ball which the local newspaper at the time, the Balonne Beacon, described as being the “most brilliant and impressive ever seen in St George”.

There may no longer be such grand balls, but Vice-Regal support for rural and remote communities like those of the Balonne Shire has never wavered since that very first visit by Governor Macgegor in 1912, and Graeme and I are proud to be part of continuing that long tradition, just as my predecessor the Honourable Paul De Jersey and Kaye de Jersey did when they visited in 2017.

Thank you again for joining us this afternoon and for making us so welcome. It’s been a wonderful visit full of highlights, of which we are certain this evening’s Queensland Symphony Orchestra (QSO) performance will be another.

We commend the QSO on their Regional Touring Program and hope to see many of you there at the St George Cultural Centre later this evening.