Heritage Festival 2009
"The Making of Queensland"
8 May 2009
Minister for Transport and Member for Ipswich, the Honourable Rachel Nolan MP,
Member for Ipswich West, Mr Wayne Wendt MP,
Federal Member for Blair, Mr Shayne Neumann MP,
Mayor of Ipswich City Council, Councillor Paul Pisasale,
Dr John Jackson, President of the National Trust of Queensland,
Mr David Eades, Chairman of the Queensland Heritage Council,
The Honourable Dr David Hamill, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Queensland Museum and Chairman of The Workshops Rail Museum Advisory Committee,
Mr Andrew Moritz, Director of The Workshops Rail Museum,
Councillors and Members of the National Trust,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Students,
In the spirit of reconciliation that we wish to promote throughout Queensland to help bring about true community harmony, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which are gathered today, the Yuggera, Jagera and Yuggerabul tribes, from the Yugambeh language group.
It is a great pleasure for me once again to be in Ipswich and at this historic location of ‘The Workshops' as it is affectionately known, to launch the Heritage Festival in this very important year in our State's history. My last visit to this unique Museum was in October last year when I spent a delightful few hours discovering its attractions and absorbing its fascinating history. One of my forebears, Henry Evans, worked here for many years, so I have a family connection which added to my enjoyment - as does the gubernatorial connection, through the special railway carriage built for the Governor - which I hope some day to have the pleasure of using.
As someone who loves history, who loves tracing the connections between our family history and that of the State; and also given the significant responsibility that I have in my official role, to promote our State within and beyond Queensland, I value the Heritage Festival greatly. With its burgeoning program of events covering the length and breadth of the State, it provides a wonderful means of learning more about the people and places who make up our common heritage, whose stories are encapsulated by the theme of "The Making of Queensland". This year's Festival program is a very impressive one - more extensive than usual. Its scope and ambition is linked to the fact that this is our sesqui-centenary year, but it also shows clearly the passion and commitment that Trust members give to the preservation and promotion of our common heritage and the imagination and creativity they apply to looking for ways to involve others in this cause. I pay tribute to them, as I do to the sponsors who support their efforts - and to the Queensland Government for its own consistent support for heritage activities.
It is my privilege to be the patron of the National Trust of Queensland, as well as a number of other organisations concerned with our history and heritage. I am also patron of the Queensland Museum Foundation and thus especially pleased that this year's launch is at one of our Queensland museums. It is my goal to ensure that I visit all our major museums, so that I can talk with authority about their exhibits and attractions and value to the community. I have managed to visit quite a number during my first eight months as Governor and I am also taking every possible opportunity, as my other commitments permit, to visit smaller local museums and those in regional centres. I find it very rewarding to see these at first-hand and to meet and get to know the people who so painstakingly preserve and chronicle the details that make up the fabric of our history and heritage.
There are many hundreds of such people working in communities, large and small, across the State. Yet, also, from time to time, I come across people for whom the term ‘heritage' holds no interest, because they seem to think that it represents what is ‘dead' - the past, ancient history, that it has no relevance for them. I find that disappointing - and a little sad - because clearly, this is not the case. Heritage is very much a living idea - it is as much about the present and the future as it is about the past - and as we stand here in this wonderful museum - beloved by families across South-East Queensland and beyond - where you can almost smell the engine oil and hear the clash of steel on steel of the trains that powered the development our State, it is very clear that Queensland's heritage is vibrant and alive, and that the Heritage Festival that starts today is tapping into that living tradition.
Like all living things, our heritage requires care and maintenance. Part of that care is the storytelling which is so much a part of the public events in the program - relaying the stories forward to the next generation. A great deal is being done to preserve these stories: but the places - the buildings, the streets, the cemeteries, the parks and monuments that anchor so much of our heritage - also require care and maintenance. I believe this festival provides a real opportunity for those who care about our heritage to reach out to others in the community, who may be complacent, or unaware of the need for active assistance, to encourage them to become engaged in this important effort, to bring them into ‘the heritage family'. In this way, we can help ensure that at our State's bicentenary celebrations, there will be the same richness of experiences and places that I am confident will characterise the 2009 Heritage Festival in this year of our sesqui-centenary.
The American poet Arthur Guiterman's poem "Heritage" has the wonderful line:
"This is our heritage, this that our fathers bequeathed us,
Ours in our time, but in trust for the ages to be"
It is a good thought to carry with us as we embark on this annual festival under its proud banner, "The Making of Queensland"; and on that note of trust, of pride in our State and recognition of the preciousness of the legacy that our fathers bequeathed to us, I give a nod to the Guards, and with the blowing of the Powerhouse whistle, we may all consider the 2009 Heritage Festival officially launched.