Scribblers Presentation of Bedford Journal

Scribblers President, Mrs Inger Kelly; Vice-President, Mrs Sandra Muir; Secretary, Mrs Lou Robson; Editor of The Bedford Journal, Ms Christine Wells; Scribblers Executive and members; thank you ladies for the warm welcome.

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 any First Nations people here today.

As your Patron, I’m delighted to join you for the presentation of this year’s Bedford Journal here in this historic building.  

I like to think that the original Scribblers would quietly applaud the fact that their successors are meeting today in the premises of a club which, back in 1911, was exclusively the domain of male military officers.

I also like to think they would be pleased to see that a woman is now Governor of Queensland and that three other women have also served in the role since 1992, enabling Scribblers to have direct Vice-Regal patronage for the first time since it was established.

Societal changes like those have been clearly reflected in the annual Scribblers’ magazine since 1924, providing a unique historical insight into the lives, attitudes and interests of Queensland women for over a century.  

The papers published in the magazine also remind us just how difficult it once was for women to be viewed as legitimate writers – only five years before Scribblers was established, the Truth newspaper published an anonymous page three opinion piece decrying the “painful poetry and pitiful prose” of what the unknown writer called “shemale scribblers”.

I suspect that the value of women’s ‘scribbling’ may even have escaped the notice of one of my most inspiring predecessors as Governor, Sir William MacGregor. Sir William was an eminently practical Scot, and, like me, was a former doctor with a strong interest in public health, but I’m not at all confident that he understood the purpose of Scribblers when he suggested to a member in 1911 that an interesting topic for a paper would be the house fly!

Today, Sir William’s suggestion would not be out of place among the vast array of topics addressed by Scribblers over the past 115 years. This year’s Bedford Journal collection is no exception and is a fine tribute to the editorial tradition established and maintained by Josephine Bedford over the 30 years that she took responsibility for this task.  

The level of dedication and generosity revealed in her work as Editor was typical of the exceptional contribution made to the Brisbane community by this remarkable woman.  

When she died 70 years ago at the age of 91, the short obituary tucked away on page 23 of The Telegraph acknowledged her only as a ‘veteran charity worker’, but Josephine Bedford was an absolute powerhouse.  

In addition to her contribution to Scribblers as Editor and frequent hostess of meetings, she was a founding member of the Creche and Kindergarten Association; she established the Playground and Recreation Association; she was a committee member of the Queensland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty; she helped establish the National Council of Women; and she was a member of the Queensland Women’s Electoral League.

And that was just in Queensland! In her fifties, Josephine and her lifelong partner, the redoubtable Dr Lilian Cooper, signed up to serve in World War I field hospitals in winter near the frontline in the dangerous, mountain territory of Macedonia and Josephine became the famously fearless and resourceful head of the ambulance service, earning the nickname ‘Miss Spare Parts’.

In a final gesture of exceptional generosity, shortly before her death, Josephine bequeathed Old St Mary’s, the lovely Kangaroo Point home she and Dr Cooper had shared, to the Sisters of Charity for use as a hospice for the sick and dying.  

Today, St Vincent’s Private Hospital stands on the site and nothing remains of Old St Mary’s but a small section of wall. But Josephine Bedford’s memory lives on – in a tree and memorial plaque in the grounds of Newstead House; in the Bedford Playground in Spring Hill, named in her honour; and, of course, in the Bedford Journal.  

You have done her proud – congratulations on another year of the Bedford Journal.