Brisbane Polo Club
Annual Governor's Dinner
23rd July, 2009
Members and Representatives of the Consular Corps in Queensland,
President of the Brisbane Polo Club, Mr Paul Tavuzzi,
Members of the Management Committee,
Club Members and guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As has become customary in our State, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Jagera and Turrbal peoples.
Thank you for the invitation to me and to my husband, Stuart McCosker, to share this evening with you, in these very elegant surroundings. I was very touched, in September last year, to receive a warm letter from the Club President, extending congratulations on my appointment as Governor and delighted to learn of the Club's tradition of holding a yearly dinner to acknowledge the Governor as Head of the State. This seemed to me a splendid tradition, which I look forward to maintaining throughout my tenure.
It was our mutual hope that the dinner be held in the New Year - but alas, the pressure of commitments on us all made this an elusive goal. Trying to find a suitable date -especially in this year when we are celebrating our State's sesqui-centenary - was like trying to put the tip of one's finger on a piece of mercury. However, at last we are here and very happily so.
There are many dimensions to my pleasure at being a guest of the Brisbane Polo Club. Although it is not Brisbane's oldest club, the building in which it is housed has a remarkable history, indelibly interwoven with the history of the development of our city and State and, similarly, your membership - individually and collectively - is making a singular contribution to the life and culture of contemporary Queensland, helping to shape our growth and our image as an enterprising, increasingly outward looking and sophisticated State, of multiple attractions, with our capital Brisbane now viewed as one of the most dynamic and attractive centres for business in Australia.
I want to say more about business in a moment, but first a word about polo.
I have a particular appreciation for the historic game of polo, having served in China, where it was first played in about 600BC and from whence it spread throughout Asia; and then more importantly, we lived for three years in India, where I was Australia's High Commissioner. India is recognised as the birthplace of modern polo, from the days of the British Raj in the 1850's (as no doubt all the polo aficionados here would know, the actual word ‘polo' is a derivative of the Indian name for the wooden mallet - the ‘poola') and although the Raj has long gone, the game is still very popular, embedded in proud traditions of fine horsemanship and athletic skill. My husband and I also watched polo at matches in France - notably in Deauville - during my most recent tenure as Ambassador to France - where players came from all corners of the globe to pit their skills and wits against one another. I recall the Argentinians as being especially swift and ferocious. Although I'm not a horsewoman myself, I have a healthy appreciation for the skills involved firstly in getting six legs and two heads working seamlessly together and then for teams to mesh to emerge victorious - and I find it a thrilling sport to watch.
I know that polo has a strong following in Australia, with 50 clubs in five states, including six in Queensland. I know also - despite having seen some of its elite in action - that it is not the elitist, socially exclusive sport so often depicted in popular culture - that polo players, in fact, come from all backgrounds and have in common a passion for horses and a passion for this exciting and dramatic game, (which has once again been recognised by the IOC, in 1998 as an international sport. I know many polo players would like to see the next step, of having it return to the Olympics after it was dropped in 1939 - testament to that growing international participation in the sport to which I referred earlier).
This disconnect between the popular image of polo and the reality of it being a contemporary and vibrant modern game interests me, and started me thinking about a similar disconnect that is evident in some quarters between the popular image of business and businesspeople and the reality of contemporary business in Queensland. I have already observed how much the businessmen and women who are members of this Club contribute to the economic life of our city and State - but there is another area where the Club has made a valuable contribution to the common good. I am talking about the protection of our heritage.
On occasion, in the media, businesspeople are depicted as rapacious souls, more concerned with profits and the financial bottom line than with the common good; and at times, portrayed as actively hostile to the protection of our heritage. Although we would all have to acknowledge some failures in the past to protect and preserve our built heritage (those of us who were students here in a particular era, remember vividly certain things that happened in the middle of the night, involving the demolition of certain buildings!), the story of the Polo Club in Brisbane, and this building, is a wonderful one - something to be recounted with pride to anyone who might offer a disparaging or cynical remark about "business" or its contribution to our community.
While I know that, despite its name, not all of the members of this Club are passionate about polo, I am assured that many members are deeply committed to the protection and preservation of this historic building, so brilliantly restored, which functions as the Club's headquarters.
This beautiful Victorian building exemplifies the very best of the ideals of that era - a belief in the value and virtue of commercial enterprise and a self confidence and optimism about the future that led to the creation of architecture that was at once functional and beautiful, and built to last. The term ‘Victorian' is too often used as a term of abuse, to imply stultification or rigidity, but I think the particular optimism of Victorian society and the belief that commercial enterprises had a moral dimension, that business could be a force for social good - is something we should value, as part of our cultural and social roots - that still help to anchor us today.
This building originated in the 1860s and its current central core was opened by one of my predecessors, the Governor of the Day, Sir Henry Norman, in 1889. The local newspaper of the day, the Queensland Figaro, described the building "as conspicuous for Brisbane as is the Eiffel Tower to Paris". A scant quarter century after Queensland separated from NSW, the State which had started its life with a population of a mere 24,000 and a total of nine pence in the State Treasury, had grown into the kind of place where the Australian United Steam Navigation Company felt sufficiently optimistic about its prospects to commission the design and construction of the core of this building - a more modest two storey office building than the building we see today, but nonetheless a significant investment in the young Queensland. Their optimism was certainly vindicated, as the business continued to grow and prosper at such a rate that the proprietors felt confident enough by 1886 to commission plans to extend the building to construct a third level, and to add the wonderful, shady verandahs along the Mary Street frontage and the emblematic tower to create the silhouette that we recognise today.
That Brisbane and Queensland should have grown so quickly and so dramatically from such unpromising beginnings - a story which can be seen in the fabric of this building - is a tribute to the determination and commitment of the men and women of that fresh born State that it would not fail, and that the abundance of resources and opportunity in Queensland could and should be harnessed to build a new and distinctive community.
I have been privileged to work over the past eleven months with historical societies, museums, community groups and professional historians on many events and celebrations of our sesqui-centenary, and I've gained a much greater insight into our history than I had previously, which is far more complex and multi-layered than many were previously willing to credit. Looking at many of the primary records and seeing the fairly dramatic problems that faced the early colony - economic, financial and social, many of which threatened the very existence of the whole enterprise - one cannot help but be struck by the absence of doubt and despair in those early accounts; if you go back and read them, there shines through a quiet determination to overcome and to prevail.
Naldham House has been through almost as many trials and tribulations as the State of Queensland itself, and I think the fact that this building - which stands in dignified and comfortable contrast between the gleaming modernity of Waterfront Place and the bustling Eagle Street pier complex, overlooking the river which was the lifeblood of Brisbane's early commercial life and is now the backdrop for so much of our community life - is a living building, protected and inhabited by the modern Brisbane business community is a tribute to the Club's founders and a priceless asset for the Club members.
As Governor, I occupy another of Brisbane's heritage buildings, and - although I have to confess it is not the most comfortable place to live in some respects - I do consider it very important that our heritage buildings, Government House included, be given life and purpose by their occupants and used in contemporary ways for the benefit of the community; and also that their history and heritage be appreciated and cherished by those who have the privilege of using them. From everything I have observed and heard, I believe the Polo Club and its members have given that to Naldham House. Moreover, through the functions and events that are open to non-members, the Club - like the game of Polo I talked about earlier - is not restricting its activities only to a privileged elite, but actively extending enjoyment of this heritage to the wider community.
The Brisbane Polo Club is a wonderful asset for Brisbane and for Queensland. I thank you for this invitation to visit the Club to meet you and to enjoy your gracious hospitality; I thank you for the support you extend to the Office of Governor, through the hosting of this annual Governor's Dinner, and I look forward to a long and productive relationship with the Club and its members.