United Service Club 75th anniversary of Club premises

President and Dining President of the United Services Club, Lieutenant Colonel Tony Coyle and Mrs Marie-Ann Coyle; Vice President, Major Ian Harding RFD and Mrs Fiona Harding; members of the Management Committee and your partners; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen. good evening.

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the lands of Brisbane, the Turrbul and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders, past, present and emerging.

Graeme and I are delighted to be with you for this evening’s celebration. Not many of you may be aware, but the United Service Club holds a very special place in my and Graeme’s history. We celebrated our wedding reception here 22 years ago.  

The invitation to tonight’s event has given me, now as Patron of this Club, a wonderful opportunity to reflect further on the history of this institution and its two unique heritage-listed buildings – Montpelier and the Green House.

As many of you will know, Montpelier’s origins go back to 1864, just five years after Queensland became a separate colony. At that time, a two-storey lodging-house of that name was built on this site, and I was delighted to discover that it was designed by the same colonial architect, Benjamin Backhouse, who designed another of Queensland’s heritage-listed villas – the family home on a hilltop in Paddington which, today, is Queensland’s Government House.

But this was not the only vice-regal connection I discovered because Lady Musgrave, the wife of Queensland’s sixth governor, Sir Anthony Musgrave, used Montpelier to provide accommodation and training for servant girls who had been released, without support, by their employers. Today, the Lady Musgrave Trust still carries her name. It is Queensland’s oldest charity and I am proud to be its Patron and advocate as it continues its work as a champion for vulnerable, homeless women.

The second of the buildings that now form the United Service Club was known as the Green House and while I have not yet found a vice-regal connection to any of its owners or to its architect, Claude William Chambers, I can claim a connection through my patronage of The Moreton Club who rented premises here from the United Service Club until 1959.

Both buildings have a very rich history and those traces are all around us if we look: the leadlight windows, the pressed metal ceilings, the fireplaces, the bay windows, the tongue-and-groove timber panelling, and of course the words “Green House” on the moulded architrave above the front door.

Finally, as this is the first official occasion on which I have spoken to members since I was sworn in as Governor in November, I wish to thank the Club for their invitation to me to accept the role of Patron. The club has had only 11 patrons since the role was first introduced in 1933 and I am very pleased and proud to be the first woman in almost 90 years to be invited to serve in the role.

The invitation extended to me reflects just how much change these wonderful buildings have seen over those nine decades. Montpelier and the Green House have themselves been changed in many ways, too, since they were first built, but their essence has been retained. Both of them continue to enrich the streetscape as they have for more than a century, and will continue to do under the careful stewardship of the United Service Club.

Thank you again for inviting Graeme and I to join you all on such a convivial occasion.