Principal, Ms Tully, teachers, staff and students, good afternoon.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of these lands, the Koa People, as well as their Elders, past, present and emerging, and any First Nations teachers, students and community members here this morning.

I was delighted to be invited to join your Mayor, Councillor Gavin Baskett, for this visit to St Patrick’s School.

Ms Tully has also very kindly offered me the opportunity to read you the story book which we produced at Government House in 2021.

We produced the book because we wanted Queensland children to learn more about what a Governor does and to discover more about our State’s wonderful heritage-listed Government House in Brisbane.

I am the 27^th Governor of Queensland, and the 17th to have the privilege of living in the house and, every year, we welcome many thousands of visitors to see inside the house and take tours of the gardens.

We do this because Government House really does belong to us all, but we know that not everyone will have the opportunity to travel to Brisbane and see the house in person. That’s why we created this story book and called it A Place for All Queenslanders as a way of giving children like you, in regional and remote centres, a way of discovering the story of the house and learning what Governors do.

I’m looking forward to reading it to you shortly, but without spoiling the end, I can tell you that it follows a day in the life of Mac and Mary, two squirrel gliders who live in a large tree in the grounds of Government House.

Together with their kookaburra friend Goodwin, Mac and Mary learn all about the Governor’s constitutional, ceremonial and community duties – and then receive a special invitation from the Governor herself.

I won’t spoil the surprise by telling you what that special invitation is, but I will tell you that Mac was named after the first Governor to live in the house (Sir William MacGregor), Mary was given the name of the very first woman to serve as Queensland’s Governor (Mrs Mary Forde), and Goodwin, the kookaburra, was named after Sir John Goodwin, a very environmentally aware Governor who had the bushland around Government House declared a Sanctuary for Animals and Birds, almost a hundred years ago.

I wish you all success in your studies and look forward to meeting you all, reading you the story of Macy, Mary and Goodwin, and to hearing your stories.

Thank you.