Intro

all for queensland

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Every effort has been made to acknowledge and contact the owners of copyright for permission to reproduce material. Any copyright holders who have inadvertently been omitted from acknowledgments and credits should contact the publisher and omissions will be rectified in subsequent editions. Š Office of the Governor, Queensland Publication details Published by Shady Tree, GPO Box 88, Darwin, Northern Territory, 0801 www.forrest.net.au First published in 2009 National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Forrest, Peter, 1941Title: All for Queensland : the governors and the people/

Peter Forrest, Sheila Forrest.

ISBN:

9780980351552 (hbk) 978-0-9803515-6-9 (deluxe edition)

Notes: Includes index.

Bibliography.

Subjects: Governors--Queensland--History.

Queensland--History.

Other Authors/Contributors: Forrest, Sheila, 1953-

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The Governors and The People

Peter and Sheila Forrest 2009

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Contents Foreword Her Excellency Ms Penelope Wensley AO, Governor of Queensland Authors’ Introduction Maps

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PART ONE Laying the Foundations – 1824-1859 Chapter One To Erect a New and Separate Colony to be Called Queen’s Land The foundations of Queensland’s constitutional arrangements.

Chapter Two To Lay the Foundations of a Colony The convict outpost at Moreton Bay, early free settlement and growth to 1859.

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PART TWO Sovereigns and Ambassadors – 1859-1901 Chapter Three We Hail, with Triumphant Joy, this Glorious Event Governor Bowen arrives to erect Queensland as a separate colony.

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Chapter Four Affability and Hospitalities – Mostly Remarkable expansion and Governors Blackall, Normanby and Cairns.

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Chapter Five Restoring Affections From 1877-1889 – Governors Kennedy and Musgrave.

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Chapter Six Strife and Tempest Governor Norman through troubled times, 1889-1895.

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Chapter Seven A Piece of Cake Lord and Lady Lamington, the exciting couple who symbolised a new era.

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PART THREE Viceroys, Soldiers and Statesmen – 1901-1966 Chapter Eight Into the Promised Land New roles and status for Governors Chermside and Chelmsford in the years after Federation.

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Chapter Nine Different Men, Different Times Sir William MacGregor and Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams make the best of peace and war.

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Chapter Ten A Land Fit for Heroes – But Not for Australian Governors Governor Nathan presides over Queensland’s roaring twenties.

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Chapter eleven The First of the Modern Governers Goodwin and Wilson, through good years and bad.

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Chapter Twelve Life is Great in the Sunshine State An Australian Governor, Sir John Lavarack; then the Abel Smiths help Queensland celebrate its centenary.

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PART FOUR All Our Own – 1966-2009 Chapter Thirteen The Calm and then the Storm Governors Mansfield and Hannah – steady progress and then controversy.

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Chapter Fourteen Urbane and Capable Changes and challenges through the terms of Governors Ramsay and Campbell.

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Chapter Fifteen 247 Friends of Queensland Queensland’s first female governor, Leneen Forde, and a gentle soldier, Peter Arnison.

Chapter Sixteen Imbued with Altruistic Notions of Making the World a Better Place Style and substance for Queensland with Governor Quentin Bryce.

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Chapter seventeen An Ambassador for Queensland From a chancellery to Government House – Governor Penelope Wensley.

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Postscript

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End Notes

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Sources and References

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Image Acknowledgments

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With Thanks

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Index

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Foreword ‘As a proud Queenslander, conscious of my heritage, I pledge that I will do all I can to serve the people of Queensland and to promote and enhance the welfare and standing of the State. I give my solemn assurance that I will work with commitment and dedication to carry out the constitutional, ceremonial and civic duties that attach to the role of Head of State, believing sincerely that these duties contribute in an important way to ensuring the stability of our political system and to securing the prosperity of the economy and the well-being of the people.’1 A promise, solemnly made, in public and before friends, family and peers is one of the most profound and important acts a human being can undertake in our society, whether it is made during the ceremonies that punctuate our personal lives or during the ceremonies that mark the commencement of our civic offices. There is a sense of seriousness, of both the lesson of history and the promise of the future – and of creating a yardstick by which our actions may be measured – that pervades such occasions, and which mark them out as special in our memory.

Our society is built on promises – from the promise made by the democratic franchise itself to give a voice to every citizen in the governance of their State, to the promises made by our elected representatives to represent the people and fulfil duties of office with honesty and integrity, to the solemn promise made by every member of our judiciary to dispense justice with impartiality and according to the law.

As I took my oath to serve as Governor of Queensland, I was acutely conscious of the seriousness of the promises I would make and keep, to serve as Head of State of my birthplace.

As the 25th person to undertake to fulfil this solemn oath I was surprised by how little had been written about the efforts of my predecessors to fulfil their promises, and how the nature of the role had grown and adapted as the State itself had grown and changed over the 150 years since separation from New South Wales.

My predecessor, Governor Bryce (now Governor-General) also identified this gap in our history and commissioned this book to help contribute to a better understanding of the role of Governor. This book is a tribute to her strong commitment to improving our understanding of Queensland’s history and of the men and women who built the nascent colony into the modern and sophisticated State it has become today.

When I was asked to prepare a foreword for this book I was conscious that very few of my predecessors have chosen to commit much to paper about the nature of the role of Governor, its context and practice.

Perhaps this reticence has been the product of advice from those who urged the preservation of a ‘mystique’ around the office; or perhaps it stemmed from a more practical concern, to avoid fettering the discretions attaching to the office in the event of a constitutional crisis.

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Opposite, left: A gathering following the swearing-in of Ms Penelope Wensley AO as Governor of Queensland. Left to Right: Mr Patrick Vidgen, Clerk of the Executive Council; Ms Filomena Morgan, Clerk of the Executive Council; Commander Forbes Peters ADC RAN, Commanding Officer, Navy Headquarters South Queensland, Royal Australian Navy; The Honourable Paul de Jersey AC, Chief Justice of Queensland; Major General Richard Wilson AM, Commander, 1st Division, Australian Army; Her Excellency Ms Penelope Wensley AO, Governor of Queensland; The Honourable Paul Lucas MP, Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning; The Honourable Anna Bligh MP, Premier of Queensland; Mr Lawrence Springborg MP, Leader of the Opposition; The Honourable Mike Reynolds AM MP, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly; Air Commodore Mark Gower OAM retd, Official Secretary, Office of the Governor; Group Captain Paul Hislop, Temporary Commander, Combat Support Group, Royal Australian Air Force; Ms Kerri Beasley, Aide to the Governor.

Top right: Governor Penelope Wensley and Official Secretary Mark Gower inspecting guard of honour.

Centre: Premier Anna Bligh and Governor Penelope Wensley, Stuart McCosker at rear.

Below: Governor Penelope Wensley leaves Parliament House after the swearing-in ceremony, 29 July 2008.

Foreword

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My own preference is for greater transparency and profile for the key roles undertaken by the Governor, to enable the community to better understand the work that is undertaken on their behalf.

The primary responsibility of the Governor as Head of State is to ensure the continuance of a stable government which commands the popular support of the Parliament. The constitutional role also involves presiding over Executive Council and giving Royal Assent to Bills passed by Parliament, summoning and dissolving Parliament, appointing Ministers of the Crown and issuing writs for State elections. The work is serious and substantial.

Beyond this primary constitutional responsibility, the role of Governor has expanded and grown over the 25 tenures, and the authors have done an admirable job of tracking this evolution over time – as they have of identifying the continuities and the threads of similar experiences and connection with the community that can be traced through the separate but linked stories of each Governor’s term of office.

The work of the Governor in the community is perhaps the most visible part of the role. It is with this aspect that Queenslanders are most likely to engage with the Governor, whether through the Governor’s active involvement with the large and growing number of organisations that seek the Governor’s support and patronage, or through hearing the Governor speak publicly about the significant issues and challenges facing our communities or when meeting the Governor at functions and occasions organised all around the State where the Governor’s presence has been invited as a means of adding significance to the occasion.

Each Governor brings their own history, experience and interests to this aspect of the role. Each has had a different style and way of communicating and connecting with the community. Yet there are many similarities. In common

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From left: Governor Penelope Wensley and her husband Stuart McCosker at Badu Island child care centre.

The Governor and Stuart McCosker receiving gifts at Mabuiag Island.

Governor Wensley is welcomed to Mabuiag Island.

Open day at Government House.

Governor Penelope Wensley.

with all my recent predecessors, I have experienced a warm, interested and respectful reception wherever I have travelled throughout the State. From the northernmost tip, in the Torres Strait, through the cities and the towns, to the most remote regions and locations, I have been very gratified by the interest of Queenslanders in ‘their’ Governor – even by those who favour constitutional change. There appears to be a genuine appreciation and support for the ‘public voice’ that the Governor can bring to highlighting key issues, and a deep regard for the role of the Governor in giving recognition and thanks, on behalf of the community, to those who have made a significant contribution to improving the lives of all Queenslanders and of our State.

I have also encountered considerable interest – sharpened of course, by the celebration of our sesquicentenary – in the history and heritage attaching to the office of Governor, visible on the landscape in the place names recalling many, if not most, of our Governors, and on the plaques commemorating the great ceremonial occasions at which the Head of State has presided. By putting flesh on the bones of these names and events – whose origins have drifted into obscurity over the years, the authors have done a great service to Queensland history.

It is my hope that this book, richly researched, thoughtfully written and beautifully illustrated, will help to broaden the community’s knowledge of the differing and unique contributions each of our twenty five Governors has made to our history, and in so doing, help to deepen our understanding of the individuals and events that have defined and shaped the State of Queensland.

Penelope Wensley Governor of Queensland

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Authors’ introduction In 2007, we had a conversation with Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce, now Governor-General of Australia but then Governor of Queensland. She put it to us that a book was needed about the governors of Queensland, a book that would tell the stories of the individual governors in a way that would present them as human beings and would explain their roles and functions for the general reader.

‘Above all’ she said, ‘we need a book that will show the various governors and their spouses in the contexts of their times, a book that will tell of how the governors engaged with the people of Queensland and with their hopes, achievements and disappointments. Not a book about garden parties and ritual and formality, but a book about real people, about Queenslanders.’

Ms Bryce is a persuasive person and we very soon came to see that she was right. Such a book was needed and it could be a magnificent contribution to the state’s celebration of its 150th birthday. Although much had been written about the governors, there was no popularly accessible book that filled the gap between journalistic jottings and constitutional law textbooks.

We were delighted and honoured but also over-awed when Governor Bryce asked us to write the book. Her enthusiasm and her vision for the project quickly subdued the trepidation that overcame us when we thought about how large and complex the task would be. She said ‘Don’t worry, I will support you.’ We agreed to write the book and she kept her promise.

This is the outcome of that conversation. As Ms Bryce would wish, we dedicate this book to everyone who might read it, in the hope that her original ambitions for the work have been fulfilled. Above all, we hope that the book has succeeded in putting a human face on the governors; that it does de-mystify them and explain what they have done and what their purposes have been. We hope too that readers will see that the story of the governors is contained within a bigger narrative, the story of Queensland.

The office of governor is the oldest and highest of all in the apparatus of Australian state government. Many aspects of the governors’ roles and functions have changed over the years, as Queensland has changed. However, the fundamental purposes of the governors have never altered. They represent continuity and stability within our community. They embody the concept of allegiance to the Crown, a concept that today simply means allegiance to each other, a commitment to the common good and its advancement through our system of government with the governor at its head, deputising for the Queen.

The governors have always been impartial referees whose job it is to see that our government is carried on according to the rules of law and the conventions of the Westminster system. History reveals many instances, some of them surprisingly recent, when laws and conventions might have been stretched beyond breaking point but for the governor of the time. The governors have been our local Heads of State, pinnacles of our community who lead, encourage and guide us, make us feel better about ourselves. They personify our total community and our system of government. It is not a

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Above: ‘I gained a lot of respect for the military, and made many friends among people in the armed services community. I was a bit nervous about uniforms at first, but they quickly welcomed me,’ said Governor Quentin Bryce.

perfect system, but those who decry it need to explain why it is so envied by other communities that have different arrangements.

It is a striking thing that in Australia we take our governors for granted. We don’t spend very much time thinking about what the governors do and why. It is perhaps one measure of the success of the system that we can comfortably treat such fundamentally important things so casually. However, the other side of that coin is that because we do not think very much about the subject we do not trouble to learn as much about it as we should. This book is not written to support any argument for or against us having governors; it is simply an attempt to show why we have had governors in the past, who those governors have been, what they have done, why and in what circumstances.

For us, this book has been a huge task made achievable only by the help and support of many people and organisations. We mention many of them in our Acknowledgments at page 290. We crave the forgiveness of those many people we fear we may have overlooked.

There are some people and organisations that we must especially mention.

Not only did Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce develop the concept for this book and then commission it, she sustained and encouraged us over the long haul since 2007. We could not have done the job without that support.

In 2008, Ms Bryce left Queensland to become Australia’s first female GovernorGeneral. She was succeeded as Governor of Queensland by Ms Penelope Wensley, who immediately saw the value of this project and continued to nurture and sustain it. She has contributed invaluable comment and advice.

Her Official Secretary, Mark Gower, has courteously and efficiently met all of our needs for liaison and administrative support. We are very grateful to him and to all his staff, particularly Cecily Pearson and Kerri Beasley, for their encouragement, guidance and support.

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Above: Authors Peter and Sheila Forrest.

The State Library of Queensland promised at the outset to support the project.

We are extremely grateful to the State Librarian, Lea Giles-Peters, for keeping that promise without reservation. Wholehearted and unstinting support has been given, always expertly, always efficiently and always cheerfully.

Queensland is lucky to have such an institution, under such good management.

The Library appointed Dianne Byrne, Librarian, Original Materials, John Oxley Library, to be our particular point of reference. If this project has succeeded it is because of Dianne. She has been continuously available to us and ever-willing to respond to our requests for help of all kinds. We believe that this book shows the benefit of Dianne’s immense knowledge of the library’s collection, her uncannily astute perception of our needs, and her unfailingly cheerful willingness to help. Queensland’s documentary heritage materials and people like us who use them are extremely fortunate that there are librarians like Dianne as custodians of those materials. Dianne went beyond the call of duty as a librarian when she agreed to read the manuscript for us. Her painstaking attention to detail helped us avoid many pitfalls.

We defer to nobody in our admiration for Dr Ross Johnston’s teaching and writing of Queensland’s history over many decades. We were exceedingly fortunate when Ross agreed to review our manuscript in draft form. His prompt and good humoured corrections and suggestions have enhanced many pages of this book. We hasten to say that Ross should not in any way be

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held responsible for the infelicities and errors that we hope have not slipped though the net but we fear almost certainly have.

New par Historian Helen Gregory also critically reviewed our manuscript.

She applied to that task a tremendous knowledge of Queensland history, a quest for the happiest forms of expression and a mastery of detail. She also unearthed some obscure sources for us. Thank you, Helen.

Manfred Cross read the manuscript for us and we benefited greatly from his keen eye for detail and from his deep knowledge of Queensland’s history.

Manfred shared with us his recollections of personal associations with all the governors since Sir Leslie Wilson and those memories afforded us extremely valuable insights. Sue Dibbs and Margie Webb also read the manuscript for us. They each looked at our materials from different perspectives, Sue as an editor and Margie as an informed general reader. Their comments were immensely useful, helping us to achieve improved accuracy and a better balanced coverage.

In the early stages of the work, Kate Chapple was appointed by Governor Bryce to act as project manager. She took on that role with enormous enthusiasm and effectiveness. She ensured that our work got away to a flying start. She has maintained her interest and enthusiastic support.

We have produced many books in collaboration with the graphic design firm, Sprout, which has always achieved an excellent result for us. This has been the most challenging book so far but Sprout has met the challenge. Their design and layout work has achieved a superb result. Throughout, our working relationship with the Sprout team, led by Anya Lorimer, has been harmonious and effective. Thank you, in particular, Carly Frusher. You can be proud of this book because so much of it is yours.

Finally, we must explain why it is that there is some unevenness of coverage of the various governors in these pages. Some governors were in office for longer than others; some governors did more than others; there was a bigger story to tell about some governors than about others; there were more source materials for some governors than for others. In many cases, but not all, there was an abundance of photographs – generally speaking, there were more and better photographs relating to the early governors than for later ones. There was also the difficulty of sourcing sensitive materials relating to more recent times. All of these factors have frustrated our desire to give approximately equal space to each governor. We have done the best we could to achieve a balanced presentation.

As we complete our task, we cannot help reflecting that through this work we have met many friends among the fascinating people who shaped Queensland’s history since 1859. They often differed, often bickered and brawled, but they were all for Queensland. We came to have a warm regard, even affection, for them. We hope you will feel the same way about some of the people you will meet through these pages. We hope that for you this book is both interesting and useful.

PETER AND SHEILA FORREST1 September 2009

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Torres Strait Islands Bamaga

Weipa

Cooktown

Cairns

Mareeba Normanton

Burketown

Innisfail Georgetown

Townsville Camooweal Mt Isa

Bowen

Charters Towers Julia Creek

Hughenden

Cloncurry

Boulia

Mackay

Winton Clermont Longreach

Bedourie

Barcaldine

Emerald

Rockhampton Gladstone

Biloela Windorah

Bundaberg

Birdsville

Maryborough Quilpie

Charleville

Gympie Roma

Kingaroy Dalby

Cunnamulla

Toowoomba

St George Goondiwindi

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Brisbane

maps

Darwin

Brisbane

Perth

Sydney

Adelaide

Canberra Melbourne Hobart

Gympie Noosa Kingaroy

Nambour Caloundra

Redcliffe Toowoomba

Moreton Island

Brisbane Ipswich Beaudesert Warwick

Stradbroke Island

Southport Coolangatta

Stanthorpe

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