Monday, 15 April 2024
Government House
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Bujari Gamarruwa

Diyn Babana, Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of these lands and waterways, I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging, as well as to the Elders of all parts of our State from which you have travelled.

Community is special. It is a sense of togetherness that extends beyond being neighbours. It is a belonging giving us a sense of place, connecting us, sustaining us through good times and bad. At its heart, it is inclusive and practical – it is more than words; it is stepping in to help one another in whatever way we can. Although its spirit is intangible, its impacts are not.

Tonight, we celebrate an organisation and its legacy that is both an emphatic expression of this spirit of direct compassionate action, and vital embodiment of the countless and lifechanging impacts those actions can bring about.

In the early 1930s, life was tough in New South Wales; it was the height of the Great Depression, and unemployment was as high as 30%.

In public schools across the State, teachers noticed the devastating flow-on effects - students suffering from malnutrition, as well as the effects of diseases rife in a time before vaccinations and anti-biotics and with public health systems in their infancy.

Banding together, under the auspices of the newly formed NSW Teachers Federation, they petitioned the government for a grant of land. The aim was to build a preventorium: a place where children could be brought and provided safety, meals, and other preventative health measures. A respite from their circumstance: a place to breathe, heal, and grow.

The teachers promised the government that, if built, they themselves, would pay for the day-to-day running of the facility through fundraising activities and drives. A benefactor was found – the noted philanthropist Sir Frederick Stewart – to pay for the bricks and mortar; and an architect to provide designs pro gratis.

A grant of land was forthcoming, a “slice of sand” alongside Curl Curl beach, and construction began.

The result was, of course, Stewart House, officially opened on the 7 March 1931 by my predecessor Sir Philip Game, 26^th Governor of NSW.[1] At the time, it housed more than a hundred children, staying for periods according to their needs.

Although much has changed over the intervening 9 decades; the need for a place for children disadvantaged by circumstance, to come for a break, to have their physical and mental wellbeing looked after, remains the same.

And so, Stewart House continues its vital service, retaining its founding charter of changing children’s lives. It is more than an aspiration; it is a demonstrated reality: since its doors first opened in 1931, over 200,000 children, from all over the State, have benefitted, often in life-changing ways, from a stay in Stewart House.

A couple of years ago, I visited and saw firsthand the wonderful work they do. Graeme[2] showed me around. I learned about their facilitation of access to health services, the health screenings, the opportunities provided for the empowering benefits of children realising their own worth, of learning life skills and strategies for wellbeing; of having their physical, social, and emotional needs met; of being reminded they are valued, they are important, and they are deserving of opportunity, whatever their background and circumstance.

I heard stories of the students there that day, being a small number of the 1,600 children from NSW and ACT public schools who have walked through Stewart House’s doors, of the life-affirming experience their stay provided.

What was apparent is that Stewart House provides a circuit-breaker when something different is required for a young person and their families. What was also apparent is that for over 90 years it has been a very effective circuit breaker.

It is a service that is vital but impossible without the generosity of many in this room, including the dedication and commitment of the NSW Departments of Education and Health, and the NSW Teachers Federation, whose contributions and involvement span the entirety of this great organisation’s history.

In short: to all in the Stewart House family – staff, volunteers, and supporters – past, present, and future, as Patron, I say:

Thank you.

[1] ‘Stewart House, Curl Curl’, Methodist, 14 March 1931, p.14, available here

[2] Graeme Philpotts, Chief Executive Officer, Stewart House.