The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. The removals of those referred to as "half-caste" children were conducted in the period between approximately 1905 and 1967, although in some places mixed-race children were still being taken into the 1970s.
Francis Michael Forde was an Australian politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Australia from 6 to 13 July 1945. He was deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party from 1932 to 1946 and served as prime minister in a caretaker capacity following the death of John Curtin. He is the shortest-serving prime minister in Australia's history.
Peter John Hollingworth, is an Australian retired Anglican bishop. Engaged in social work for several decades, he served as the archbishop of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane in Queensland for 11 years from 1989 and was the 1991 Australian of the Year. He served as the 23rd governor-general of Australia from 2001 until 2003. He is also an author and recipient of various civil and ecclesiastical honours. In May 2003 Hollingworth became the third Australian governor-general to resign, after criticisms were aired over his conduct as Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane in the 1990s.
The governor of Queensland is the representative in the state of Queensland of the monarch, currently King Charles III. In an analogous way to the governor-general 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.
Dame Quentin Alice Louise Bryce, is an Australian academic who served as the 25th governor-general of Australia from 2008 to 2014. She is the first and to date only woman to have held the position, and was previously the 24th Governor of Queensland from 2003 to 2008.
Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( UUD-gə-roo NOO-nə-kəl; born Kathleen Jean Mary Ruska, later Kath Walker was an Aboriginal Australian political activist, artist and educator, who campaigned for Aboriginal rights. Noonuccal was best known for her poetry, and was the first Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse.
Catherine Ena "Cate" Holmes is a retired Australian jurist who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland, the highest ranking court in the Australian state of Queensland. She was appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland in 2000, to the Queensland Court of Appeal in 2006 and appointed chief justice on 11 September 2015. She retired on 19 March 2022.
Anna Maria Bligh is a lobbyist and former Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of Queensland, in office from 2007 to 2012 as leader of the Labor Party. She was the first woman to hold either position. In 2017, she was appointed CEO of the Australian Banking Association.
The Forde Inquiry (1998–1999), or formally the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions, was a special inquiry into child abuse in the state of Queensland, Australia, presided over by Leneen Forde AC, a former governor of Queensland. Assisting Ms Forde were Dr Jane Thomason and Mr Hans Heilperm.
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse (CICA) was one of a range of measures introduced by the Irish Government to investigate the extent and effects of abuse on children from 1936 onwards. Commencing its work in 1999, it was commonly known in Ireland as the Laffoy Commission after its chair, Justice Mary Laffoy. Laffoy resigned as chair in 2003 and was succeeded by Justice Sean Ryan, with the commission becoming known as the Ryan Commission. It published its final public report, commonly referred to as the Ryan report, in 2009.
Swimming Australia is the peak governing body for competitive swimming in Australia. The body has approximately 100,000 registered members nationally in 1100 clubs across the country, which includes swimmers, coaches, officials, administrators and volunteers. The body oversees the management and development of the sport from the national team at the elite level, the conduct of national and international events, through to grass roots participation.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba is a Latin Rite suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, established in 1929, covering the Darling Downs and south west regions of Queensland, Australia.
The Association of Marist Schools of Australia (MSA) is an organisation that seeks to unite the various schools across Australia which have at any stage in their history been connected to the Australian provinces of the Marist Brothers, Marist Sisters or Marist Fathers, and by that union assist them in the provision of quality Marist education according to the traditions and charism passed down by the founders of the orders, Saint Marcellin Champagnat, Sister Jeanne-Marie Chavoin and Jean-Claude Colin.
Forgotten Australians or care leavers are terms referring to the estimated 500,000 children who experienced care in institutions or outside a home setting in Australia during the 20th century. The Australian Senate committee used the term in the title of its report which resulted from its 2003–2004 "Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care", which looked primarily at those affected children who were not covered by the 1997 Bringing Them Home report, which focused on Aboriginal children, and the 2001 report Lost Innocents: Righting the Record which reported on an inquiry into child migrants.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was a royal commission announced in November 2012 and established in 2013 by the Australian government pursuant to the Royal Commissions Act 1902 to inquire into and report upon responses by institutions to instances and allegations of child sexual abuse in Australia. The establishment of the commission followed revelations of child abusers being moved from place to place instead of their abuse and crimes being reported. There were also revelations that adults failed to try to stop further acts of child abuse. The commission examined the history of abuse in educational institutions, religious groups, sporting organisations, state institutions and youth organisations. The final report of the commission was made public on 15 December 2017.
Jean Aileen Little OAM, née Ling is an Australian Aboriginal leader and community advocate from Mapoon in the Far North Queensland. In 1997 the then Governor of Queensland, Leneen Forde, awarded Little the Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to Aboriginal health and community services.
The Westbrook Reformatory for Boys was a reformatory school in the town of Westbrook, in the Toowoomba Region, Queensland, in Australia. The Westbrook Reformatory was created in 1900 after the closure of earlier versions of the institution on the former prison hulk, the Proserpine, and at Lytton, Queensland. The Reformatory changed its name to the Westbrook Farm Home for Boys in 1919. Under this later name, it was the subject of a major scandal which culminated in a government inquiry. The institution was renamed twice more before its closure in 1994. Since its closure, the Westbrook institution has become known as a site of serious institutional abuse. It was described at length in the 1999 Forde Inquiry and the 2004 Forgotten Australians report.
Jeannette Rosita Young is an Australian medical doctor and administrator who is the current governor of Queensland since 1 November 2021. Before being sworn in as governor, Young was the chief health officer of Queensland from 2005 to 2021.
BoysTown was a child welfare school and institution located in Beaudesert, Queensland, Australia. It ran from 1961 until 2001, operated by the De La Salle Brothers, a Catholic organisation. There were allegations, later proved, of physical and sexual child abuse, reported in 2020 as the largest case at a single institution in Australia's history. Two former BoysTown staff were convicted of child sex offences committed at the institution, and the De La Salle Brothers paid over A$27 million in compensation to 219 victims of abuse. Following the closure of the institution, BoysTown continued to operate as a charity, and rebranded as yourtown in 2016.
