Lady Flo Bjelke-PetersenPrint Page

The Lady Bjelke-Petersen Community Hospital commemorates Lady Flo Bjelke-Petersen (1920 - 2017) for her services to the local community and as a Senator for the State of Queensland in Federal Parliament.

Florence Bjelke - Petersen was born in Brisbane in 1920. She was a National Party Senator for Queensland and is also the wife of former Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke - Petersen. 

She had strong conservative values and grew up during the Depression, and was sent to Brisbane Girls Grammar School. After school, she worked in the Queensland Main Roads Department, eventually becoming Private Secretary to the Commissioner, a position she held from 1949 to 1952.

At 32 she met and married 40-year-old Johannes Bjelke - Petersen, a peanut farmer and member of the Queensland Parliament. As Joh's career took off, she became first a minister's then a premier's wife. But far from living in Joh's shadow, she was herself a significant political presence. In 1981 she became a National Party Senator for Queensland, and was Deputy Leader of the National Party in the Senate from 1985 to 1990, and retired from politics in 1993. She died in 2017 at the age of 97. 

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