Friday, 12 September 2025
Sydney Opera House Forecourt
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Thank you, Superintendent.^[1]

Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

I greet you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of this land and pay my respects to Gadigal Elders, past, present and emerging, and all First Nations peoples here present.

Minister;^[2] Acting Commissioner^[3]; NSW Police Officers, family and friends,

It is an honour to join you for today’s celebration of the Bicentenary of the NSW Mounted Police and to share in this moving tribute to two centuries of service.

As Governor, the many ceremonial and commemorative occasions in which I engage have been enhanced by the presence of the NSW Mounted Police. Occasions such as the Queen’s and King’s Birthday Parades at Government House; Anzac Day Marches; National Police Remembrance Day services and Police Attestation Parades at the NSW Police Academy are of special note.

That sense of ceremony that you, our Mounted Police, add to these occasions has been on display over your 200-year history, but none more so than during the Royal visits over the last 75 years. You were on guard during Queen Elizabeth’s tour in February 1954, the first visit of a reigning monarch to our shores.  You were again proudly on parade for the later visits of Her Majesty, including during the opening of the Sydney Opera House in October 1973. The tradition continued during the recent 2024 visit by King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Well known for their equine interests, it surprised no-one that Prince Charles visited the NSW Police Mounted Unit complex in Redfern in 2016 as did the Princess Royal during her tour in February 2023. On that occasion, the Unit performed a musical ride for Her Royal Highness as you have done so admirably each year for the Royal Agricultural Society’s Royal Easter Show since 1907.

To those honours, we add the Unit’s performance at two Edinburgh Tattoos and in 2012 at Windsor Castle for her Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee – which also featured the Royal household’s cavalry. 

From your ceremonial role to maintaining public order and protecting public safety, there would be few milestone moments or significant events in this State that have not been attended by the NSW Mounted Police. You played an important role at the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932, during the Sydney Olympics, and the Walk for Reconciliation in 2000 which saw an estimated quarter of a million people march peacefully across the Harbour Bridge.

From crowd and traffic management on New Year’s Eve, at Mardi Gras, Vivid, music festivals^[4] and protests, to the less visible aspects of your role, including search and rescue of missing persons in dense bushland and rugged terrain, the horsemanship, the skill and discipline you bring to NSW Police, speaks of your long tradition of service.

Two hundred years is a milestone worthy of the ceremony with which today’s celebration is marked.  Formed three years prior to the London Mounted Police and 38 years prior to Canada’s ‘Mounties’^[5] this milestone is the celebration of the oldest continuous mounted policing service in the world.

Initially formed to meet the needs of an expanding and growing colony, with its early officers drawn from England, Ireland and Scotland, today from its Redfern base, the highly skilled women and men of the NSW Mounted Police Unit form an integral part of Police operations in our State. 

The Unit is supported by those who groom, exercise, and care for the horses behind the Redfern stable gates and by its retiring officers, who we are honoured to have here today.

To each of you, who represent our State with pride and with honour - I thank you for your service in the ceremonial aspects of the Governor’s duties and for your service to the community of NSW.

[1] Superintendent Julian Griffiths, Commander, NSW Police Dog and Mounted Command, NSW Police Force

[2] The Honourable Yasmin Catley MP, Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism, Minister for the Hunter, and Member for Swansea, Parliament of NSW

[3] Acting Commissioner Peter Thurtell APM, NSW Police Force

[4] NSW Mounted Police Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-HezCMv4NJ/

[5] London Metropolitan Mounted Police was established in 1828 and Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1863: True Blue excerpt, 150 Years of Service and Sacrifice of the NSW Police Force, Patrick Lindsay, 2021