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27th Governor of Queensland Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette Young AC PSM

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125th Anniversary of the Braille House Library Opening

Minister for Child Safety, Minister for Seniors and Disability Services and Minister for Multicultural Affairs, the Honourable Charis Mullen MP; Member for Miller, the Honourable Mark Bailey MP; Braille House Management Committee Chair, Ms Jacqueline Parker and committee members; General Manager, Mr Richard Barker; staff; supporters; volunteers; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbul and Jagera people, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people with us today.

Graeme and I are delighted to welcome you to Government House for today’s celebration of the 125th anniversary of the official opening of the unique library of the Queensland Braille Writing Association – which we’ve since come to know as Braille House – on this very day in 1899.

In officially opening the library, the Premier of the day, Sir James Dickson, was justifiably generous in his praise of the efforts of the 31 women and one man who had been working on Braille transcriptions for the preceding 24 months.

Together, by the day of the opening, they had transcribed 54 titles and all were proudly displayed. Each book had been bound, free-of-charge, by the Government Printing Office, and many of them were printed on the Braille paper offered to the Association by an English paper mill at a significantly reduced price.

With the equipment available to us today, 54 titles may not seem a particularly significant achievement, but each of those writers first had to learn the Braille system and acquire the necessary skills.

Lady Lamington, the wife of the then Governor and the first Patron of the Association, Lord Lamington, gave Queenslanders an appreciation of the time and skill involved when she commented at a meeting of the Association that it had taken her three days to transcribe just three lines.

There may have been just 54 titles, ranging from Hans Anderson’s Fairy Tales to The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, but for the blind community, it was not the number of titles that was important, but the access.

One blind reader, in a moving letter of thanks to the Association, wrote of the pleasure of being able (and I quote) “to enjoy the minds of great men and women”.

“By reason of sight, they are able to write of and describe things which we can understand when we read them ourselves, and thereby give us new thoughts and ideas and so help to take away the gloom that so often settles down upon those who have lost their sight”.

That underlying spirit continues to drive Braille House today and, as Patron, I congratulate and thank everyone who has helped it to reach this significant milestone.

In its report on the opening in 1899, The Brisbane Courier noted that after the official business of the day, the guests “dispersed about the hall, entered into conversation, and enjoyed a recherché afternoon tea”.

The women’s pages of the Courier could normally be depended on to provide details of the exotic fare that was served, but with no knowledge of the precedent set 125 years ago, our Government House chefs have prepared a celebratory tea I trust you will find sufficiently recherché.                                                                              

I wish you all a very happy 125th anniversary. Enjoy your afternoon!