Quentin Bryce

Who is Quentin Bryce?

Quentin Alice Louise Bryce AC CVO is the 25th and current Governor-General of Australia. She is the first woman ever to hold the position, and was previously the Governor of Queensland from 2003 to 2008.

Born in Brisbane, Queensland, she was brought up in Ilfracombe, with her family subsequently living in a number of country towns around Australia. She attended the University of Queensland, where she completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws, becoming one of the first women accepted to the Queensland Bar.

In 1968, she became the first woman to be a faculty member of the law school where she had studied, and in 1978 she joined the new National Women's Advisory Council. This was followed by appointment to a number of positions, including the first Director of the Queensland Women's Information Service, the Queensland Director of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 1988. Her services to the community saw her appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988, and a Companion of the Order of Australia and Dame of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 2003. In 2011, Elizabeth II invested Bryce as a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order at Government House.