Northern Peninsula Area Regional Council Community Lunch

Mayor, Councillor Robert Poipoi; Councillors; Chief Executive Officer, Ms Dalassa Yorkston; community leaders; ladies and gentlemen.

I acknowledge the Original Custodians of the lands and waters of the Northern Peninsula Area, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging.

Graeme and I are delighted to welcome you as our guests for this special community lunch and to have this opportunity to meet and talk to you all. Mayor Poipoi and Councillor Kitty Gebadi were among the guests at a dinner which we hosted in support of Queensland’s regional mayors earlier this year at Government House, and we have been looking forward to connecting with them both again and to meeting their fellow Councillors.

This is my first official visit to the Northern Peninsula Area Council, and Graeme and I had the valuable opportunity at a working dinner last night to hear directly about the priorities and concerns of the Council’s five communities. 

Events like that dinner and today’s lunch, as well as my visits to the Bamaga Hospital and the Northern Peninsula Area State College, are invaluable to me in my position as Governor because they enable me to develop a deeper understanding of the different aspirations, achievements and needs of the people of the Peninsula.

Listening to Queenslanders has always been a key priority of Queensland governors and few of them did that better than Sir Leslie Orme Wilson who was appointed as governor 94 years ago this week.

Sir Leslie served the people of Queensland for a record 14 years and carried out his constitutional, ceremonial and community duties with great enthusiasm. From the very beginning of his term, he travelled to remote areas of the State that, at that time, were seldom visited or Queenslanders or other Australians.

He was particularly interested in the welfare and progress of North Queensland so it is not surprising that, just over a year after his appointment, he set out from Brisbane on a 12-day sea voyage to see the Peninsula and the islands of the Strait for himself.

Bamaga had not been established at that time, but he visited many islands in the Strait, including your ancestral home, Saibai, and Queensland newspapers enthusiastically reported on the Governor’s excursions to watch pearl and trochus shell divers and to see fishermen spear dugong and capture sharks.

His wife and daughter also fell under the spell of this magical part of the world during that 650-kilometre journey. They were charmed by the music, dancing and the magnificent Dhari worn by the islanders, and delighted when people sang and danced out into the water to farewell them when their ketch departed.

On his return to Brisbane, Governor Wilson told reporters that each place they visited seemed to vie with its neighbours in making their visit as pleasant as could be.

That tradition of generous, warm-hearted hospitality continues in this wonderful part of Queensland and I am delighted to have the opportunity to experience it.

Thank you again for joining us today.