Florence Isabel Gilmour

Florence Isabel Gilmour
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1920 – 2017

Born11 August 1920 in New Farm, Queensland, AustraliaDied20 December 2017 in Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia, aged 97

Entered the Queensland public service after a twelve-month public service course at the State Commercial High School and was allocated to the main roads department, where she worked for fifteen years. She became private secretary and receptionist to the Commissioner for Main Roads, accompanying him on road inspection tours and liaising with deputations from local authorities. It was through one such deputation that she met Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, then Country Party member for Nanango, in 1950.

Degrees

Family

Parents

JG James Pollock Gilmour 1898–1954 father FL Florence Mabel Low 1895–1971 mother

Spouse

JB Johannes Bjelke-Petersen 1911–2005 m. 31 May 1952

Places 9 locations

BirthWorkMarriageOtherDeath / burial

Timeline

1920s
Born 11 August 1920

New Farm, Queensland, Australia
1930s
17
Occupation (Public servant, Queensland Main Roads Department) 1937–1952

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Entered the Queensland public service after a twelve-month public service course at the State Commercial High School and was allocated to the main roads department, where she worked for fifteen years. She became private secretary and receptionist to the Commissioner for Main Roads, accompanying him on road inspection tours and liaising with deputations from local authorities. It was through one such deputation that she met Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, then Country Party member for Nanango, in 1950.

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1950s
31
Married to Johannes Bjelke-Petersen 31 May 1952

Queensland, Australia
34
Death of father James Pollock Gilmour 1954

Queensland, Australiaaged 56
1970s
51
Public Relations Officer, National Party Barambah Electorate Council 1971–1981

Queensland, Australia

Held party office in the Queensland National Party's Barambah electorate council for ten years before entering the Senate. She was later made a life member of the National Party of Australia (Queensland).

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51
Death of mother Florence Mabel Low 1971

Queensland, Australiaaged 76
1980s
60
Senator for Queensland from 12 March 1981 to 30 June 1993

Queensland, Australia

Elected at the head of the National Country Party's Queensland Senate ticket at the 1980 federal election. Her own term was to begin on 1 July 1981, but the resignation of Senator Glen Sheil created a casual vacancy and she was chosen by the Parliament of Queensland on 12 March 1981 under section 15 of the Constitution to fill the remainder of his term, being sworn in twelve days later. She made her first speech on 6 May 1981 and was re-elected at the 1983 and 1987 double dissolutions, retiring at the expiration of her term on 30 June 1993. She sat for the National Country Party, renamed the National Party of Australia in 1982. She crossed the floor eighteen times, first in September 1981 against her own government's sales tax increases.

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64
Title (Lady Bjelke-Petersen) 1984

Styled Lady Bjelke-Petersen as the wife of a knight bachelor from her husband's knighthood in 1984, and officially known in the chamber as Senator Lady Bjelke-Petersen. The Parliamentary Handbook records her as BJELKE-PETERSEN, Lady Florence Isabel.

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65
Deputy Leader of the National Party in the Senate from 20 August 1985 to 10 April 1990

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Deputy leader of her party in the Senate for almost five years. She was also National Party spokesman on Education and Family from 30 April to 6 August 1987.

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65
Temporary Chair of Committees, Australian Senate from 21 August 1985 to 5 May 1993

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Served on the Senate's panel of temporary chairs of committees, presiding over the chamber in committee of the whole, from August 1985 until shortly before her retirement. She used her shorthand skills to make notes to assist her in the chair.

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1990s
72
National Party Whip in the Senate from 23 March 1993 to 30 June 1993

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Held the party whip's office in the Senate during the final months of her term.

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2000s
84
Death of husband Johannes Bjelke-Petersen 23 April 2005

Kingaroy, Queensland, Australiaaged 94
2010s
97
Died 20 December 2017

Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia