The Royal Life Saving Society Queensland Awards 2024

The Royal Life Saving Society Queensland Honorary President, Ms Nicky Sloan and Members of the Board; State Manager, Ms Nikki Thornhill; awardees and your families; members; staff and volunteers; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Graeme and I welcome you to Government House and to this gathering of dedicated members, friends and supporters of The Royal Life Saving Society Queensland.

We come together for this significant awards ceremony at Fernberg, on the traditional lands of the Turrbal and Jagera people, and here, I pay my respects to the Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people with us this evening.

So often when we hear of an organisation, we ask the question; ‘What do they do?’ Not so with the Royal Life Saving Society – the clue is right there in the name. It is a society committed to saving lives and it has been doing that in Queensland since 1905.  

There are two equal and overarching principles in the saving of life. The first being, the capability of responding effectively to an emergency, and the second is working to prevent those emergencies from occurring in the first place. You certainly don’t need a doctor to tell you prevention is better than cure!

We live in a State, indeed a nation, blessed with amazing natural wonders, not least of which being, beautiful waterways, lakes and spectacular beaches, which provide us with huge range of water-based activities. We owe a huge debt to the Royal Life Saving Society for the critical role they play in equipping Queenslanders to enjoy those activities safely.

The work done by the Society in the promotion of swimming skills and development of community-based drowning prevention strategies is indeed transformational.

From your South-East Queensland Water Safety Forum and strategy to your aquatic safety initiatives like The Platinum Pools Program, you are guiding policy, delivering education and training, and taking real action to help reduce drowning incidents in our State.

Your efforts make a difference.

As Governor of Queensland, I have the great privilege of being able to speak on behalf of the people of Queensland and it is on their behalf that I thank you all for the work you have done and continue to do in the most noble of causes – the saving of lives.

We now come to a most significant part of the evening, as I know you join me in congratulating and celebrating the 22 award recipients we are recognising today with Medals, Crosses, Commendations and Certificates that represent exceptional bravery, dedication and commitment.

And finally, in confirming my Vice-Regal patronage of the Royal Life Saving Society Queensland, it is now my great pleasure to present a Certificate of Patronage to Honorary President, Ms Nicky Sloan.