Speech delivered on December 8, Government House

We are on Ngunnawal country, so we also always acknowledge people who have long and enduring relationships with this country and throughout the land of the ACT and the surrounding regions. I pay my respects to all of the traditional owners of the places you are from.

I want to acknowledge Jacqui Emery, your CEO. We spent some time together in March this year to see in the New South Wales Parliament House the beautiful exhibition 100 Years of Caring for Country Kids, which was part of the year-long celebration of the centenary of Royal Far West. And even just seeing those photos took us right back to the very beginning of Royal Far West.

We always say that when you come to Government House, you come into a place of peace and welcome where absolutely everybody belongs. So with that said, feel free to wander around the ground floor of the House, the rooms, or anywhere out here, subject to some of the guardrails we put in. We want you to experience what it's like. And the reason there is some string up to stop you in certain places is simply for your safety. It has been very, very windy in Canberra lately, and a lot of the branches have been falling down. And we want you all to be incredibly safe. Apart from that, you can wander around and enjoy yourself.

I want to acknowledge the Royal Far West families that are here today, the staff members of Royal Far West who do so much work to make sure that they got to the centenary and now can start planning for the next 100 years. And then I want to welcome the students and the teachers of Saint Mary’s in Crookwell, Saint Gregory’s in Queanbeyan, and Saint Patrick’s in Cooma. Now, put up your hand if you’re from Saint Mary’s… there's a Saint Mary’s group, Saint Gregory’s… and Saint Patrick’s—lots of people from supporting agencies, the Catholic Education Office, principals, teachers—you are also welcome here.

I want to say to the students and teachers of the three schools: I am the 28th Governor-General. There have been 28 Governors-General who worked out of this office. I'm the second woman doing the job. The first woman was Quentin Bryce, who was the Governor of Queensland before she became Governor-General. And then I was appointed about 16 months ago. So, second woman, 28th overall—but I'm number one in something: the first Governor-General born in Canberra. Interesting that one hadn't been born in Canberra before, because the seat of government is here, Parliament is here, and the work that is done by the Governor-General is so closely associated with the capital city.

And so I wanted to say particularly to the students: as I was growing up in Canberra, my dad was in the army, so we moved a fair bit. But when I was at schools here in the local schools, I was very aware of the surrounding regions. So I'm saying Crookwell—I have lots of friends who work in Crookwell. Most recently, we went to Crookwell to one of the aged care facilities there to invest one of the slightly older members of the Crookwell community with his medal that he won as an Order of Australia. And it was important we went to Crookwell because he couldn't have come here. He wasn't very well. So we went, saw him, and hung out with his family for a lovely day in Crookwell.

I've got lots of friends from Crookwell, Queanbeyan and Cooma. Queanbeyan is just part of the border—I had a lot of time for Queanbeyan growing up. And in Cooma—Cooma was the place that not only did we go skiing as a family, I learned to drive by driving up the back roads from Canberra to Cooma. That's my driving memory—so I could drive on country roads. And I've been back and forth, and I love taking photographs of the beautiful landscape in Cooma. And then just this year, I had the privilege to officially open the Cooma Show. So it just tells you that we are all connected.

But for many of the communities that are a little bit distant, a little bit remote and rural—that's why Royal Far West matters to you. That's why it's very special to have you all here today to celebrate 100 years of caring for country children. Now since Jacqui took over in 2021, the organization has grown enormously—noticeably: 150 pediatric allied health and medical staff supporting children across four states and 360 communities, just like your three. Having started in 1924 with a very small organization with a big, big mission, it is now a modern service organization with 3,000 children—from New South Wales to Western Australia. These are really important people, like all of you, who get the benefit of Royal Far West.

I want to say that in 1970, when the organization was known as Far West, it was visited by Queen Elizabeth. And you'll see beautiful portraits of the former monarch. Her visit in 1970 meant that the prefix “Royal” was first fixed to Far West. Her son is King Charles, who is the person I represent in Australia. He's the head of state, and I represent him. And just a few weeks ago, his sister was here in Australia. I told her all about the history of Royal Far West.

It's an absolute privilege to be your patron—whoever I can to support you, to congratulate you on the work you do, and on your developments in Manly. What an enormous undertaking—that means profoundly what you do for country kids all over this country and continue to do. There's no organization like it. And I'm very proud that you're here today for us to celebrate toward the end of your centenary year. I can't wait to see what you do in your second 100 years. Thank you, everybody. Have lots of fun here today.