Official Opening of Normanton Hospital

Mayor, Carpentaria Shire Council, Councillor Jack Bawden; Deputy Board Chair, North West Hospital and Health Service, Professor Eleanor Milligan; Board Members, Ms Loretta Seamer, Ms Tanya Arnold, and Ms Tonya Murray, and Acting Chief Executive Officer, Mr Andrew Quabba; Queensland Health staff; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen. 

I begin by acknowledging the Original Custodians of the lands around Normanton, the Gkuthaarn, Kukatj, and Kurtijar peoples, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people here this morning. 

Graeme and I made our first Official Visit to Normanton earlier this year and were delighted to receive the invitation from Mayor Bawden to return today to officially open this fantastic new 18-bed facility, which we inspected while it was still under construction in July. 

As many of you will know, both Graeme and I are passionate advocates for health. My career before I was appointed as Governor four years ago was devoted to improving health outcomes and, over that time––and especially during my 16 years as Queensland’s Chief Health Officer––I did all I could to support the health of Queenslanders, wherever they may live. 

That commitment has continued into my current role, and I made a public pledge, when I was sworn in, to “encourage a healthy and active Queensland, and to visit every public hospital throughout my term”. 

Queensland has no fewer than 124 hospitals and multipurpose health centres. While visiting all of them over a five-year period has certainly been a logistical challenge—especially with many facilities, like this one, located in some of our State’s most remote and hard-to-reach areas—it’s also been an incredibly rewarding experience.  

Each visit has offered a valuable opportunity to connect with communities, recognise the dedication of healthcare workers, and highlight the importance of regional health services across Queensland. 

I am very pleased that this week’s visit, which includes stops in Croydon and Etheridge Shires, has enabled me to tick three more off my list, bringing the total number I will have visited thus far to 119. 

Queensland’s governors have actually been committed to ensuring the health of the people of this region for a very long time––as early as 1892, more than 130 years ago, there was a Vice-Regal visit to the Normanton hospital.  

The visitor on that occasion was Field Marshall Sir Henry Wylie Norman, our state’s seventh Governor.  

In a journey that took more than a month, Sir Henry and his party travelled from Cairns to Normanton by government steamship and returned overland via Croydon and Georgetown by horse-drawn buggy, camping out on several nights to rest the horses.

Thankfully, my staff have not been required to pitch tents or water the horses once in order to get me here to thank and congratulate this community, the healthcare workers, and all those who have brought this new hospital to fruition. 

It is an achievement of which you can all be proud. It is certainly a great source of pride to me, both as Governor and as the former Chief Health Officer, to see the tremendous work being done in this vast region by the North West Hospital and Health Service to ensure that the people of the savannah have access to health services when and where they need them.  

This new hospital is part of that assurance, and I now have great pleasure in declaring the new Normanton Hospital officially open.