Speech delivered on National Wattle Day 1 September 2026

On the first day of Spring, I'm so delighted that we're here in this beautiful garden to be with one another to celebrate such an important day.

Of course, I want to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people as the traditional owners of this land and recognize any of the families and clans who have long association with this part of Canberra and the ACT.

Of course, on Wattle Day Aboriginal people would talk about the acacia, and tens of thousands of years of the acacia being used as a medicine, as a as a building supply, many things. So, our wattle has been celebrated in very different ways over millennia.

I pay my respects to the elders, past and present, of the traditional owners.

We also have some very important guests here today. You are all extraordinarily distinguished, but I am so proud to welcome back my two predecessors as Governors-General of Australia, General the Honorable Sir Peter Cosgrove, AK, AC (Mil), CVO, MC (Retd), and Lady Lyn Cosgrove, and General the Honorable David Hurley, AC, CVO, DSC (Retd) and Mrs. Linda Hurley. Can we make them very welcome, because they’ve come back today.

I do say that both have particularly supported me, particularly in my arrival into this role. No one prepares you to be Governor-General other than former Governors-General and their partners to help us settle in. And I don't think there could have been more helpful, more generous former Governors-General that helped me than Sir Peter and David and Lyn and Linda. So, it's wonderful to have you back here.

And you reminded me, Sir Peter, that when you were here 25 years ago for the opening of this garden, the Governors-General powers then on reserve powers on weather weren't working so well, and it was a freezing cold day, with fog keeping people away. Today, I exercised the powers for spring to be absolutely perfect. It seems to have worked.

I'd also like to acknowledge:

• The Honorable Patrick Gorman, MP, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, also serves on the Honors Council here, and I get to see him regularly.
• Mr. Alan Spark, CV Cross of Valour recipient;
• Senior Sergeant Tim Britten, CV Cross of Valour recipient;
• Mrs. Diane Pratt, wife of the late Michael Pratt, GC.
• I'd like to also acknowledge the members of the Australian Bravery Decorations Council and members of the Australian Bravery Association here today,
• Of course, Dr. Suzette Searle, Wattle Day Association, and all of your members here. I say there's almost no one that can outdress me on Wattle Day, but Suzette, you do it, and it's wonderful to see you all here in your glorious yellow.
• Very importantly, Mr. John Easthope, the Bravery Garden designer, and his good friend Lynn Herefield. I know you have put off a trip to Ireland by a day, so that you could be here. So, thank you for delaying your trip. It wouldn't have been right to be here to celebrate the 25th anniversary of your design without you here.
• Mr. Pat Garrett, the former head gardener, who was here in those days creating this magnificent garden.
• And then I want to acknowledge everyone that's standing up at the back – the Government House staff, including so many people who worked so hard over so many years to bring us to this moment. 
• The honors and award secretariat.
• The horticulture team. So, on a day like today, when you look around the entire grounds, you understand the work that the horticultural team is doing year in year out, day in day out. 
• There's also every member of the team who's had a history here. You can see Lynette at the back. You know that's been here for 22 years, Sarah for 21 years.

There's so many people who are joining us, and I'm so proud that you are all here to be part of this celebration. It is a true reflection of the work that's going on, all the time, behind the scenes, with all of you from Government House, and I deeply appreciate all that work and the fact that we're here celebrating together.

Now I also want to pay tribute to the members of the RMC band, who also not this iteration, but the band did play here at the opening of the Bravery Garden 25 years ago, together with the Federation Guard that was here. But it's wonderful to have that beautiful music.

One member of that group, French horn, was at the Duntroon graduation last week. The only one that could be there because it was raining. The rest of those instruments couldn't be out in the rain. So, I'm delighted to have all the instruments back out for this beautiful spring day to hear your music.

So today we celebrate many things. It's National Wattle Day, the first day of spring, first of September, and it's the second year in which we have announced the Bravery Honours list. And today we celebrate 25 years of this magnificent garden.

It's wonderful to be here with so many of you who played such an important role in the realization of this place of commemoration.

John, you and I met recently and walked around the gardens – it was your first time back in 25 years, and a very emotional time to hear you talk about what you desired to see at full bloom now is a great tribute to the work that you did with Pat. And to Pat, I hope you, as the gardener at the time, can look at this and take great pride in just how beautiful this space now is.

And Lady Cosgrove, I wanted to mention you because the Gallipoli roses that have been planted around the edges, of course, was your work in August 2014, which gave even greater depth and meaning to this beautiful place, which had been inspired by Gallipoli, but your Gallipoli rose-it's not in bloom at the moment, but it shortly will-and it brings the most dynamic, gorgeous depth of color and commemoration. So, thank you for doing that and paying attention over the life of this garden.

I want to thank everybody who has laboured over this garden and ensured that it remains beautiful and spectacular, and a place of great respect for those who have received bravery awards, and for members of the public who may not have been awarded, but I know come here for a sense of solace and peace if they've been involved in big events where the long-lasting impact of that means they need places of solace.

Of course, today's event, 25 years later, shows the fulfillment of the ambition of another Governor-General, Sir William Deane, who established a garden in 2001 after visiting Gallipoli in 1999. He envisaged a garden as a site of quiet contemplation and commemoration, honoring the bravery of Australians, both civilian and military. He described bravery as a tide that flows from the values we must cherish and pass on to the future.

Now Sir William would have loved to have been here this morning. He came and visited us just a couple of months ago, and we had a lovely cup of tea, and we wandered quite close here, but his mobility issues meant we really observed from a bit of a distance. He lives not far from here. He's now 95, and I think today he will be quietly reflecting on the garden and thinking about what 25 years has done to an idea that he first brought to fruition with some of our guests all that time ago, together with Helen.

You're going to hear more about the garden today, but the garden is carefully designed in the shape of the Southern Cross, and the message stones are the points of the stars.

I want to take you back to the opening where Sir William said this:

“The genius of designer John Easthope was to pick on the quintessential Australian symbol, the Southern Cross, to orient on the site due north and south, with its five major stars providing the reference points for the message stones. The Southern Cross speaks its own language. For some, it is Eureka. For others, the cross of Christianity. For all of us who live in and love this land, it is the symbol and essence of Australia.”

It's a beautiful reflection on the design principles. And John, lovely to hear you most recently talk about how you and Sir William wrestled with many aspects of this natural implementation, and you were uncompromising in the way in which the design was then brought to fruition.

The garden was actually under construction on the 14th of February 2000, when a ceremony was held here to mark the 25th anniversary of the Holy Australian system of bravery decorations, and the two Jarrah seats in the garden were presented to Government House at that time by all of those who had come together for the occasion to form the Australian Bravery Association. I'm delighted that members of the association are here today.

Now, something about Wattle Day – given that we're resplendent in our golden wattle today – Sir Ninian Stephen, another former Governor-General, declared the Golden Wattle our national floral emblem in 1988, and Wattle Day was declared a national day by another Governor-General, Bill Hayden, in 1992.

Now, since my swearing in on the 1st of July 2024, the Wattle has become a very visible part of my theme, thanks to the Wattle Association for bringing it to my attention in my first weeks in office. In fact, my family and my support team all wore wattle on our lapels on the day I was sworn in as your Governor-General in the Senate on the 1st of July 2024. And I'm always looking for ways to amplify wattle as our national symbol of unity, the turning point between winter and spring, the first plant to regenerate after fire, a symbol of hope, happiness, and resilience-a symbol of unity and survival through harsh conditions.

And when I travel around, as I'm sure my predecessors found the same, in my term I'm hearing more about the themes of social fabric fraying. You would have heard other variations of that for different reasons, after bushfires and other major disasters. Today, we hear it a lot about the sense of something fraying.

But I also hear them do something. I'm sure my predecessors have always heard, and that is our communities, actually out there across Australia, always speak about what brings us together, about care and kindness, about caring for their neighborhood, their community, and I think many of them would see Wattle Day as a unifying day as well.

Around the country, I always see visible reminders of wattle sprays at citizenship ceremonies. I was gifted this beautiful brooch from the Mongolian president when I traveled there on a state visit. And when I went to Vietnam last year, the Vietnamese ambassador to Australia, his wife created an áo dài the traditional Vietnamese dress, in the colors of the Southern Cross, with a spray of wattle across my shoulder to wear in Vietnam as a mark of respect to Australia and the values of unity.

Of course, today I'm hoping that there's many Wattle Day celebrations across schools, and children and their families are always in yellow on days like today, perhaps we could celebrate with more adults getting engaged as we are today.

And I am sent so many gifts that have wattle themes that I have a pile of them that I try to utilize wherever I am, whether it's jewelry or handkerchiefs, embroidery, and over time I think will create a display of just how many Australians come back to Government House with symbols of wattle.

I want to thank you, Suzette, and your Wattle Association, Wattle Day Association, for continuing to hear about our symbol, it’s only getting stronger.

Now, importantly, we also today are reflecting very seriously on bravery. This is the second bravery list to be released on Wattle Day. I'm delighted that has been met with great acclamation across Australia, a tradition that we'd like to establish. We started last year, and we're hoping to unite one of Australia's very important National Unity Days with our recognition of extraordinary acts of bravery.

I think it's very special that we share today the announcement of this year's bravery list with two of the five Australians to have received the Cross of Valor, Alan Sparks and Tim Britten. It's a particular honor today to have you here. Your stories of courage and bravery, and the roles you've continued to play since, have set the standard for us all.

Bravery is, of course, not confined to a story just of exceptional people.

I was at a service in Melbourne earlier this year on the 85th anniversary of the Rats of Tobruk siege back in April, and former army officer Keith Wallahan spoke very movingly. He reminded us that our heroes aren't often people being put on pedestals or more that they want to be, but they are always deeply human, and the fact that they are ordinary – not that I use that word in a perjorative sense – make their decision to show courage in unimaginable circumstances all the more extraordinary.

And we see that so clearly today in the names on this year's bravery list and the names of those who have been recognized and awarded across the decades, including Michael Pratt GC, who served his community as a constable in the Victorian Police Force and who, in 1978, was the last Australian recipient of the George Cross, awarded for acts of great heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger.

A young police officer from Macleod, married just a few months, and only a couple of years into the job, Michael took on three armed and dangerous men engaged in a bank robbery while off duty and unarmed, intercepting the robbers. He received bullet wounds in the spine and lungs and identified one of the offenders the next day while he was in intensive care, recovering from patient surgery. A genuine Australian hero, but also so utterly human, as you would know, and you had known that very deeply, Diane. This human quality is so clear in your beloved Michael's description on the day he was told of his award by Sir Henry Winneke, the then Governor of Victoria.

I think you know these words, but you don't mind me sharing them today. He wrote this.

‘Sir Henry said, "This is one of the greatest days of my time as Governor. Will you please sit down?” I said, “No, I can't sit down. I'd rather stand, please,” He said, "If you're going to stand, we'll both stand.” He was a lovely man. He then said, "It was with the greatest of pleasure that I inform you that the Queen has decided to award you the George Cross.” I must have had a blank look on my face. I didn't know what a George Cross was, and he had told me it's the highest civilian award for bravery you can get. But the penny still hadn't dropped, so Henry finally managed to sit me down and explain to me what it was all about. We then had a cup of tea and biccie, and he asked me about my family, my brothers, and my sister, and so forth.’

That humility has defined so much of what we see in the brave Australians of all. I've very much enjoyed reading your late husband's words.

So, a quarter of a century after the establishment of the bravery garden, Australians continue to show extraordinary courage and care, protecting the lives and property of others, always placing themselves in danger. Our bravery awards recognize courage and also the traits that accompany bravery, such as care, kindness, respect, humility. Those we honor with bravery decorations remind us of the strength and depth of the character and selflessness of so many brave Australians.

So, I'm proud and deeply honored to be amongst all of you such an important, distinguished gathering today to acknowledge that we all have so much to be thankful for - the humanity, compassion, and bravery of Australians who will always have our enduring gratitude and admiration.

Just returning to today to Wattle Day.

Today, our country and the world is grieving the enormous loss of life and livelihood in unimaginable circumstances in Nepal, where we now know we have one Australian who has been declared dead. We are waiting nervously, alongside families and friends of so many, for news of at least 42 other Australians, alongside the many 1000s who will have perished in this terrible disaster. I hope our thoughts are with the community in Australia, the Nepalese diaspora, all of those, to her family and friends, and the deep shock and grief that so much of the world is enduring at the moment.

I'll finish with something that Sir William said here in his speech to open the garden, which I think speaks to the power of wattle and commemoration. He pointed out, I want to quote him:

"Both the east and fifth stones depict the sprig of wattle, another important symbol of our nation. It brings to mind that within the last four weeks, the sprig of wattle from here was placed at the summit of Mount Everest, and almost two years ago, Helen and I took wattle from here to Interlaken, in both cases commemorating the lives lost overseas by Australians pursuing their spirit of adventure.”

I like to think today that when we look at our Wattle, we think of the fact that there has been loss of life in another part, far flung from here, where Australians have been hurt. We will hear many stories of courage and valor and bravery from what is going on with the recovery at the moment, but just as Sir William did in traveling to Interlaken, I imagine at some point there may be a mission to go and place wattle in Nepal. I imagine that might be the case, and if it is, I will remember this moment and the fact that for 25 years we have been acknowledging our bravest here at a garden imagined as a concept brought to life so magnificently, and here we are, quarter of a century later, all together on Wattle Day, we announced bravery awards, and we celebrate everything that is good about Australia's unity being together, and be thankful for all of those that go well above what's required of us, and show that that true grit and Australian spirit of care and compassion and bravery.

Thank you all for being here today. It's been my absolute pleasure and honor to host you, and I hope you have a lovely morning in this glorious day and take in the full surroundings. This is all about all of you.

Thank you