BUSHkids Annual Report 2022-23

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Annual Report 2022–23

Chair report

Longevity, loyalty and leadership These three terms are often bound together by more than their alliterative qualities and, I believe, never more so than in BUSHkids as I reflect on my 31st year as a volunteer in the service of this amazing organisation. Deputy-Chair Carolyn Searle has embodied this spirit in her championing of the development and completion of Babimim Jharr. Meticulous financial stewardship by the almost-two-decade commitment to BUSHkids of Honorary Treasurer Allison McLean enabled our new teleBUSHkids Centre to reach its operational goal.

On the topic of renewal, readers of this year’s document will note a change in language from the traditional references to ‘Council’ to ‘Board’ members. As set out in our current Strategic Plan, BUSHkids is now a ‘Company Limited by Guarantee’ and I thank CEO Carlton, in particular, as well as my colleagues and the many members of our Leadership team and specialist advisers who have worked so hard and so diligently to bring BUSHkids’ corporate governance framework forward towards our 90th anniversary, two years’ hence. As well as remaining committed to the aims and outcomes of the National Redress Scheme (NRS), BUSHkids this year has also made great strides along the path towards Reconciliation. Just as I was writing these words and finalising this annual report for Board submission and endorsement, we received news from governing body Reconciliation Australia that our proposed first-stage (‘Reflect’) Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) had been officially accredited and BUSHkids formally accepted as a member of the nations-wide RAP Network. This achievement reflects not only the visionary drive of CEO Carlton but also the many years of leadership-led, frontline- staff-delivered, engagement with the First Nations peoples in not only our existing clientele and serviced communities but also in expanding outreach to areas beyond, all over Queensland. It is an honour for our meaningful early steps on this long path to be formally recognised and, on behalf of the Board, I thank everyone involved in this important process to date, and I have no doubt of the sincere dedication of our volunteers and staff towards the journey ahead. In echoing Carlton’s comprehensive acknowledgements of our various state and federal funders on the following pages, let me also reiterate our appreciation of the keen interest shown in the work of our new Babimim Jharr team by the Governor of Queensland, our Patron Her Excellency Dr Jeanette Young ac psm , on her recent private visit to our Toowong Precinct to inspect our new facilities for the futures of all Queensland children. I close this report with my thanks, as always, for the support of my wife Annette, our children and extended families, without which, well … that’s the heartfelt core of why we do what we do. Neil

In our annual report for 2020–21, as BUSHkids — and, indeed, Queensland and the country — began to recover from the worst of the pandemic, CEO Carlton Meyn noted that we were one of 12 not-for-profit organisations successful in being granted funding through the State Government’s Community Infrastructure Investment Partnership (CIIP) program to facilitate part of the statewide economic recovery process. The announcement, in September 2020, by Deputy Premier Steven Miles, of this generous ‘seed funding’ to enable preparatory work to begin on our teleBUSHkids Centre at our Toowong Precinct in Brisbane was followed by extensive planning and fundraising efforts by BUSHkids, with the support of our many donors and partners. Thus, it was with much pleasure and great pride that we were able to welome the Deputy Premier to Toowong, 30 months later, to officially open our new ‘Babimim Jharr (“Family Place”) teleBUSHkids Centre’ in May this year. The installation of state of-the-art technology for our services to reach kids and families all around the state from an old, sympathetically-redeveloped Queenslander in inner-suburban Brisbane is a striking example of tradition meeting innovation. Both purposefully and yet paradoxically, our new Babimim Jharr reflects the best of our BUSHkids ethos, from our founding in the early 20th Century to our continued quest for better ways to serve in the 21st — my congratulations and thanks to all who have been involved in actualising this vision.

Dr Neil J Bartels oam MBBS LL.M Grad.Cert. Leg.Med. FACRRM

R: All smiles for young Dakota and Allison at the official opening of our Warick Centre’s new Nature Play Area (see pages 13 and 16–17 for more information).

The ‘steadying hands on the tiller’ of colleagues Julian Martin, Judy Peters oam and Emeritus Professor Deb Theodoros have continued to play key roles both in their specialist expertise portfolios as well as in the overall governance of BUSHkids, and I thank them most sincerely for their passionate dedication. So it was with great sadness but enormous gratitude that we accepted the resignation of Gail Huggins in March 2023. After retirement from her professional Speech Pathology career, Gail gave our organisation more than a decade of voluntary service and elected to finally embrace ‘proper retirement’ with both hands. On behalf of BUSHkids, and the thousands of lives on which you have made a positive difference, thank-you . What can you do when you have to surrender the loss of a good ‘Speechie’ but succeed them with another — we are delighted to welcome Dr Louise Cahill and the expertise of her 40-year career in academic, research, clinical and practical roles as we continue our ongoing organisational reinvigoration.