| Lady Bjelke-Petersen | |
| Senator for Queensland | |
| Term Start: | 12 March 1981 |
| Term End: | 30 June 1993 |
| Predecessor: | Glen Sheil |
| Successor: | John Woodley |
| Birth Date: | 1920 8, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Brisbane, Queensland, Australia |
| Death Place: | Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia |
| Birthname: | Florence Isabel Gilmour |
| Party: | National |
| Children: | 4 |
Florence Isabel Bjelke-Petersen (née Gilmour; 11 August 1920 – 20 December 2017) was an Australian politician. She was a member of the Australian Senate from 1981 to 1993, and was the wife of the longest-serving Premier of Queensland, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. She was styled as Lady Bjelke-Petersen upon her husband's knighthood, and was also known informally as Lady Flo.[1]
Florence Isabel Gilmour was born in Brisbane, as the eldest of two daughters of James Pollock Gilmour, an accountant and company secretary, and his wife Florence Mabel (née Low).[2] She was raised at the Brisbane riverside suburb of New Farm.[2] She started her schooling at the New Farm State School, and later attended the prestigious Brisbane Girls' Grammar School.[2] She was employed as a private secretary to the Queensland Commissioner for Main Roads when she met Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, who was then a Country Party member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. They were married on 31 May 1952 at the Fortitude Valley Presbyterian Church.[3] [4] [5]
Bjelke-Petersen was preoccupied with home duties until well after Joh Bjelke-Petersen became Premier in 1968. In the 1970s, however, she assumed an increasingly public role, as part of the Queensland National Party's increasing promotion of a Bjelke-Petersen "personality cult". Her simple, homespun sayings and her recipes and affection for pumpkin scones were often associated with her in the media.[6]
At the 1980 federal election, against the wishes of party president Robert Sparkes, Joh Bjelke-Petersen arranged for his wife to be placed in the number one position on the National Party's Queensland senate ticket, ensuring her election. Her term was due to commence on 1 July 1981, however, on 6 February 1981, Queensland Senator Glen Sheil resigned, creating a casual vacancy.[7] She was appointed on 12 March 1981 for the remainder of Sheil's term, and then continued into her own term.
Bjelke-Petersen crossed the floor 18 times during her career, the 12th-most of any MP between 1950 and 2019 and the second-most by a woman after Kathy Sullivan.[8]
When Joh Bjelke-Petersen was knighted in 1984, Flo Bjelke-Petersen became Lady Bjelke-Petersen, and was officially known as "Senator Lady Bjelke-Petersen". She was frequently referred to as "Lady Florence" or "Lady Flo".[9]
She was re-elected at the 1983 and 1987 elections (both double dissolutions), and her term expired on 30 June 1993, when she decided to retire.
On 20 December 2017, Bjelke-Petersen died at the age of 97 after suffering a short illness. She died in Kingaroy at Orana Aged Care where she had resided since August 2014.[10] [11] Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk offered to hold a state funeral which was accepted by their son John Bjelke-Petersen. It was held in the Kingaroy Town Hall.[12] [13]
She published a cookbook which included her recipe for her trademark pumpkin scones.[14]