Reception to Celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

Minister Dick, representing our Premier; Dr Stable, Chair of the Metro North Hospital and Health Service; Dr Dines, Executive Director of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen. Kaye and I warmly welcome you to Government House to celebrate this impressive anniversary. And particularly celebrating an anniversary, it is right that we acknowledge tonight the traditional custodians of these lands, the Turrbul and Jagera peoples. 

The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital began operations in 1867, when the first Governor of Queensland, Sir George Bowen, was still in office.

But there is a much more substantial vice-regal connection than that.  

By 1867, the much-loved Lady Bowen had already brought about the establishment of Brisbane’s first Lying-In Hospital, the forerunner of the Brisbane Women’s Hospital.

It is an honour to continue the proud vice-regal links to the RBWH, an iconic Queensland institution which, for a century and a half, has occupied a prominent site at the city end of Bowen Bridge Road.

It occupies a prominent place in the lives of Queenslanders too. 

For a start, over half a million babies have been born there – including all three of ours, and that’s only since the Women’s Hospital began operations in 1938!

Untold hundreds of thousands have taken advantage of the many health services provided in other parts of the hospital complex.   

And, as well as consistently providing over ten percent of patient services in a State of over 4.7 million people, the RBWH has become prominent, nationally and internationally, in world-leading medical research and education.

For all the impressive statistics, though, it is the individual experience of those who pass through the doors of the RBWH that has always mattered most.

Those experiences, and the dedicated work of the RBWH’s health professionals, management, administration and support staff over fifteen decades, are at the core of the hospital’s identity and history.

The story of the RBWH is their story, a tale of dedication, of compassion and care, and of professional excellence.

As Governor, on behalf of the people of Queensland, I congratulate the hospital on reaching this marvellous milestone.  

I thank successive governments and the corporate and individual donors who have supported the work of the hospital.

I thank all those who have played a role in the enormous, indeed crucial contribution that the RBWH has made, and continues to make, to the health and well-being of the people of our capital city and our State. 

And I wish the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital every success in that pivotal role in the future.

Thank you.