QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Sir Leo Hielscher – abridged highlights

Mt Isa rail line rehabilitation “After being rebuffed by the Loan Council in Canberra for a special allocation of funds, the Treasury sent a claim over to the World Bank, which finances poor countries. Australia was one of the supporting countries. Yet here was Queensland – one of its provinces – pleading for a loan! It embarrassed Canberra to such an extent that they approved the loan within weeks!” Griffith University “Griffith started off with four faculties: Environmental, which was brand-spanking new for any university in the world, virtually; Asian studies; Science; and Arts. Of course it has grown into what it is today. Treasury also helped Griffith in many ways: as an example, in 1982, Queensland hosted the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane. After the games were over the Government gave the athletes’ quarters to the university as accommodation for its country students.” Casinos “To attract foreign tourists, it was necessary to build tourist terminals. The Tourist Industry attitude was ‘when they come, we’ll build’ but Treasury insisted that unless the facilities were built first, tourists wouldn’t come. To break that nexus, Treasury decided to issue a casino licence to two new five-star hotels that would also provide all the facilities for modern overseas tourist demand. The Gold Coast and Townsville were first to be built. They provided all the facilities the tourists needed and competition built up from there.”

The coal industry “When a mining company applied for a mineral lease, it was granted with conditions. Included in the conditions was the infrastructure the miners were required to provide such as townships, water, roads, etc. The conditions also included the agreed rail freights and relevant security deposits.” Bauxite/aluminium “The government helped with legislation to allow the establishment of the town and port at Weipa and the provision of the cheapest electricity possible at Gladstone for refining to alumina and eventual smelting to aluminium.” Cultural Centre “The building of the Cultural Centre was funded out of Casket and Lottery funds with no cost to the state budget and with no recurring debt.” The Gateway Bridges “Brisbane had a problem because it had no downriver crossing [below the Story Bridge]. The Gateway Bridge and the Gateway road system had to be built with innovative funding, with two senior public servants initially and nominally owning the bridge. Funding came with a Government guarantee and of course, it had to be tolled to pay back the debt.” Awards Sir Leo was awarded an Eisenhower Fellowship in 1973, a Knight Bachelor in 1987, an Honorary Doctorate of Griffith University in 1993, and a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in 2004. When Sir Leo retired from QTC the Government renamed the Gateway Bridges ‘The Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges’ to recognise his lifetime’s services to Queensland.

Dawn lights the eastern faces of the Sir Leo Hielscher Bridges in this view from the north side of the Brisbane River. The bridges’ design was an engineering challenge, a compromise between height restrictions (imposed by nearby Brisbane Airport) and height requirements (70,000 tonne cruise liners using the upstream terminal at Hamilton). Image Copyright State of Queensland; reproduced by kind permission

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