Open Day for Queensland Day

Premier of Queensland, Minister for Veterans, the Honourable David Crisafulli MP and Mrs Tegan Crisafulli, members of the Australian Defence Force; ladies, gentlemen, girls and boys.  

I acknowledge the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbul and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to all First Nations people here today. 

I am delighted that so many of you have taken the opportunity to visit Government House today to celebrate the anniversary of the day, 167 years ago, when Queen Victoria signed the legal documents that formally established Queensland as a new colony. 

Those two precious handwritten records, the Letters Patent and Queen Victoria’s detailed instructions to our first Governor, Sir George Bowen, are carefully preserved in the National Archives of the United Kingdom, but my immediate predecessor as governor, His Excellency Paul de Jersey AC, was able to secure facsimile copies for retention in our own State Archives.  

By special arrangement with the Archives, I’m very pleased that today, on the exact anniversary of our founding, we can display both the Letters Patent and Queen Victoria’s instructions to Sir George, appointing him as her so-called “Captain General and Governor in Chief”, and I would encourage you all to take time to look at these wonderful historical documents on display in the Drawing Room. 

The Letters Patent and Queen Victoria’s instructions to Governor Bowen are not the only items of interest on display today – Government House has an extraordinary collection of furniture, silverware, artworks and decorative pieces dating back to Queensland’s earliest governors, and the house itself is one of our State’s most important historical buildings.  

First built by a prosperous merchant as a private home in 1865, it has been progressively extended and has served as the office and home of every Queensland governor since 1910. 

Government House was one of the first buildings added to our State’s heritage register when it was created in 1992, but if it were possible to add historical events to the register, I know there is one annual celebration that every Queenslander would nominate – the Ekka! And nominate they did – because the Ekka was just this week declared as a Queensland Great in the 2026 Queensland Day Awards. 

This year marks 150 years since the Governor of the day, Sir William Cairns, officially opened the first Intercolonial Exhibition. And as you will see when you walk around the Fernberg Estate today, the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association – of which I am the proud Patron – has provided a few reminders of the delights awaiting us at the Exhibition this August.  

As Governor, I serve as the Vice-Regal Patron of more than 175 charitable organisations and associations, supporting the enormous contributions that they make to the lives of Queenslanders. 

I am delighted to welcome many of them here today, including the Flying Arts Alliance, which has now been taking art education programs and exhibitions to the most remote parts of Queensland for 55 years. I do hope you all have the time to visit the marvellous display of the history of Flying Arts and the work of their founder, Merv Moriarty. 

There is so much more that you can explore while you’re here, including our wonderful network of bushland walking tracks, but above all, this day is an opportunity for us to come together as Queenslanders to celebrate the spirit of community that unites us and the freedom and independence that we are so privileged to enjoy.   

Happy Queensland Day!