Governor of Queensland

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Incumbent Penelope Wensley since 29 July 2008
Residence	Government House, Brisbane
Website	Office of the Governor

The Governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the Queen of Australia. In an analogous way to the Governor-General of Australia at the national level, the Governor performs constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level. In particular the Governor has the power to appoint and dismiss the Premier of Queensland and all other Ministers in the Cabinet, and issue writs for the election of the state Parliament.

The current Governor, Penelope Wensley was sworn in on 29 July 2008.

The Governor of Queensland has resided at Government House, Brisbane since 1910. The mansion, set in 14 hectares of gardens and bushland in the Brisbane suburb of Bardon, is also known as "Fernberg". Unlike Fernberg, the original Government House was purpose-built and was used from 1862 to 1910; the building still exists today on the grounds of Queensland University of Technology.

The office of Governor is established by the Constitution of Queensland. Section 29 of the Constitution as passed in 2001 provides that the office of Governor must exist and be appointed by the Sovereign, but parts of the earlier Consititution Act of 1867 relating to the Governor are still in force owing to the double entrenchment of them within the constitution by the government of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who feared that the office and powers of state Governor might be abolished following the controversies of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis at a federal level.

In accordance with the conventions of the Westminster system of parliamentary government, the Governor nearly always acts solely on the advice of the head of the elected government, the Premier of Queensland. Nevertheless, the Governor retains the reserve powers of the Crown, and has the right to appoint and dismiss Ministers, issue pardons, and dissolve Parliament.

The Queensland constitution expressly provides that the Governor is not subject to direction by any person and is not limited as to the Governor's sources of advice on the appointment or dismissal of Ministers (s. 35), another provision inserted by the Bjelke-Petersen government in the wake of the 1975 federal dismissal. This provision worked against Bjelke-Petersen when, in the dying days of his government in November 1987, he tried and failed to convince Governor Sir Walter Campbell to remove several ministers to shore up his own support within Parliament. When the parliamentary wing of the National Party deposed Bjelke-Petersen and elected one of the dissident ministers, Mike Ahern, as new Leader of the National Party, Sir Joh initially refused to resign as Premier and Sir Walter resisted calls to dismiss him. Sir Joh elected to resign on 1 December 1987.

The Governor is head of the Executive Council, a Queensland equivalent to the Federal Executive Council. The Council is composed of ministers from the government of the day. The Chief Justice of Queensland and other judges in the Queensland judicial system are appointed by the Governor acting on the advice of the Executive Council.

The first Australian- (and Queensland-) born Governor of Queensland was Lieutenant-General Sir John Lavarack (appointed 1946). His successor, Sir Henry Abel Smith was British. All subsequent governors have been Australian-born, except for Leneen Forde, who was born in Canada but who emigrated to Australia at an early age.

No.	Image	Governor[1][2]	From	To
1		The Rt Hon Sir George Bowen GCMG	10 December 1859	4 January 1868
2		Colonel Sir Samuel Blackall	14 August 1868	2 January 1871
3		The Most Hon George Phipps, 2nd Marquess of Normanby GCB GCMG PC	12 August 1871	12 November 1874
4		Sir William Cairns KCMG	23 January 1875	14 March 1877
5		Sir Arthur Kennedy GCMG CB	20 July 1877	2 May 1883
6		Sir Anthony Musgrave KCMG	6 November 1883	9 November 1888
7		Field Marshal Sir Henry Norman GCB GCMG CIE	1 May 1889	31 December 1895
8		The Rt Hon Lord Lamington GCMG GCIE	9 April 1896	19 December 1901
9		Lieutenant General Sir Herbert Chermside GCMG CB	24 March 1902	10 October 1904
10		The Rt Hon Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford GCSI GCMG GCIE GBE PC	30 November 1905	26 May 1909
11		The Rt Hon Sir William MacGregor GCMG CB	2 December 1909	16 July 1914
12		Major Sir Hamilton Goold-Adams GCMG CB	15 March 1915	3 February 1920
13		Lieutenant Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan GCMG	3 December 1920	17 September 1925
14		Lieutenant General Sir John Goodwin KCB KCMG DSO	13 June 1927	7 April 1932
15		The Rt Hon Sir Leslie Wilson GCMG GCSI GCIE DSO PC	13 June 1932	23 April 1946
16		Lieutenant General Sir John Lavarack KCMG KCVO KBE CB DSO	1 October 1946	4 December 1957
17		Colonel Sir Henry Abel Smith KCMG KCVO DSO	18 March 1958	18 March 1966
18		Sir Alan Mansfield KCMG KCVO	21 March 1966	21 March 1972
19		Air Marshal Sir Colin Hannah KCMG KCVO KBE CB	21 March 1972	20 March 1977
20		Commodore Sir James Ramsay KCMG KCVO CBE DSC	22 April 1977	21 July 1985
21		Sir Walter Campbell AC QC	22 July 1985	29 July 1992
22		Leneen Forde AC	29 July 1992	29 July 1997
23		Major General Peter Arnison AC CVO	29 July 1997	29 July 2003
24		Quentin Bryce AC CVO	29 July 2003	29 July 2008
25		Penelope Wensley AC	29 July 2008	Present

Three former governors of Queensland are alive, the oldest being Leneen Forde (1992–97, born 1935).

The most recent death of a former governor was that of Sir Walter Campbell (1985–92), on 4 September 2004.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Governors of Queensland.

• Official Website of the Governor of Queensland