Ipswich City Council
2009 Awards for Excellence in Design, Heritage and the Environment
18th August, 2009
Member for Lockyer, Mr Ian Rickuss, MP,
Mayor of Ipswich City Council, Councillor Paul Pisasale,
Chairman of the Planning and Development Committee, Councillor Paul Tully,
Councillors,
Award nominees,
Sponsors,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the spirit of the reconciliation that we wish to promote throughout our State and nation, I acknowledge the first peoples of Australia and, in particular, the traditional owners of the land on which the city of Ipswich was settled, the Yuggera, Jagera and Yuggerabul peoples and their descendents.
Thank you for the invitation to share this important evening with you. I am pleased once again to be in Ipswich, a city that I have visited a number of times - indeed, I think I could fairly claim - regularly - since I assumed the role of Governor of Queensland just over a year ago. As Mayor Pisasale knows, I have many personal and family links with Ipswich and feel a special affection for this city, which has played such a pivotal role in the development of Queensland and whose history is intertwined with that of our State.
I have also developed considerable admiration for the way that Ipswich has responded - and is continuing to respond - to the many challenges created by the growth and changes taking place within our society, within this city and its population and in the surrounding region. The city appears to me to be in a constant state of adaptation and transformation, reinventing itself to meet and safeguard the needs of its citizens, to achieve a quality of life that respects and values the past, yet is attuned and adapted to contemporary realities, including environmental realities and the imperative of achieving sustainable development.
These annual Awards for Excellence - which have been offered by the City Council now for seventeen years - are themselves an excellent example of what I am talking about. When they were first introduced, in 1992, focused on design and heritage, their purpose was two-fold: to recognise and reward excellence in the conservation of heritage places; and in the design and construction of new developments: so past and present were brought together in a thoughtful way which gave greater value to both - and at the same time, established incentives and set admirable benchmarks for achievement. (I'll come back to this question of excellence in a moment, but anything which sets excellence as the standard seems to me highly worthy - and exactly what we need in every sphere of activity, in every aspect of Queensland life, if our State and its people are to succeed and prosper.)
Five years later, in 1997, the environment award category was added - presumably in recognition of the importance that environmental issues were assuming within the community. At the time, I was Australia's Ambassador for the Environment, dealing with these issues nationally and at the global level, and I was very aware of this rising tide of community interest and awareness - and am impressed by the progressive attitude of the Ipswich City Council at that time in introducing this award - which I suspect would have been ahead of many other locations in this regard.
Then, two years later, came the school trophy - another clever move, capitalising on Ipswich's unique academic heritage, but linking the schools and students into these other areas of importance to the wider community: again, some nice synergies between past and present - and an even stronger focus on the future, through the active involvement of the next generations - students whose exposure to these awards may encourage them some day to be the architects, the planners, the conservationists, the politicians whose decisions will shape the Ipswich of tomorrow.
So - like Ipswich - these awards have grown with the times, have evolved and adapted to meet the changing interests and needs of the community.
For all these reasons, I am happy to be here, to participate in the presentation of these awards. I am conscious, in so doing, that I am the first Governor to do so for ten years - the last being Peter Arnison, in April 1999, who at the time observed that "excellence is an elusive concept, but one which is fundamental to the search for success."
I'm not sure that it is so elusive, but I do agree that it is fundamentally important - and that, like the pursuit of happiness, we should all strive to achieve it in our lives and encourage others to see it as something that is not only worthy, but highly desirable AND attainable.
An obvious means of doing this is through awards such as these - and I congratulate the Council and everyone involved with their creation and development over the years, for building them into the truly valuable institution they have become for the city of Ipswich and its people. I congratulate and thank also the sponsors, for the very practical support they provide; and the media, which I understand has consistently given good publicity and coverage to the awards - and to this annual event.
Finally, in this list of thanks and congratulations, I wish to congratulate all the nominees in all four categories on being nominated - and on having invested the effort involved to merit nomination. That effort and your engagement is a wonderful testimony of commitment to your city and to your community, one which I hope you will maintain in the future, helping to make Ipswich an even more attractive and agreeable place to live in the future.
Ipswich has had its ups and downs, literally and figuratively. However, on the threshold of the City's own sesqui-centenary celebrations in 2010, the people of Ipswich have much to be proud about and much to look forward to. You have a beautiful city, dignified by its collection of heritage homes and places, lovingly maintained and painstakingly restored by people who care about acknowledging and preserving the past. You have historic schools which rank among the best in the State and which are modernizing and embracing the future with enthusiasm; and students who have on their doorstep increasingly exciting opportunities for tertiary study, with the UQ Ipswich campus expanding its range of studies; you have myriad, energetic community groups, committed to ensuring that modern Ipswich observes sound environmental practices and principles and the values the community place on protection of the environment; you have a vigorous business community, working with the Ipswich Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the City Council and professionals across a range of disciplines and interests to identify opportunities and to formulate bold and innovative plans for the future; and alongside them, property developers, designers and architects ready to contribute with resources and ideas to make them happen; and, with all these assets, you have people beyond Ipswich increasingly ready to invest in Ipswich's future - for example, with the recent announcement by the State Government to establish a new industrial precinct focused on the development of advanced aviation technology. One might be forgiven for concluding, when it comes to the Ipswich of tomorrow, that "Truly, the sky is the limit!"
Meanwhile, for the Ipswich of the here and now, there is every reason to celebrate - to appreciate these awards for excellence in heritage, design and environment as a great achievement, not only for the individuals and organisations who will be recognised and honoured tonight, but for the Council which instituted them and for the City itself. As the Awards approach their 18th birthday, we should all acclaim and applaud the contribution they have made to Ipswich, in setting excellence as the benchmark for the city's development and maintaining this as the standard by which success is measured, creating an even greater sense of promise for the future.