Colin Hannah - Governor

Governor

Hannah's planned three-year term as Chief of the Air Staff was cut short by some ten months when he accepted an offer to serve as Governor of Queensland, becoming the first officer in the RAAF to receive a vice-regal appointment. The announcement was made in January 1972, and he took office on 21 March. He succeeded Sir Alan Mansfield. Hannah did not have a strong connection with Queensland at the time of his appointment, and had only lived in the state during his period as commander of RAAF Station Amberley between 1949 and 1951. While claiming not to have actively sought the governorship, he was criticised for failing to consult with senior colleagues before making his decision to retire early from his position as head of the Air Force. He was replaced as CAS by his deputy, Air Vice Marshal (later Air Marshal Sir) Charles Read.

Described when he took office as "a man with the flexibility of mind and ability to mix with people, so necessary for a Governor", Hannah was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in September 1972. The same year, he was made a Knight and Deputy Prior of the Venerable Order of Saint John. His term was relatively uneventful until 1975. In October that year, he created controversy at a Brisbane Chamber of Commerce luncheon by criticising the "fumbling ineptitude" of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's Federal Labor government for placing Australia in "its present economic state". Vice-regal appointees in Australia were expected to remain above politics, but Hannah declared that he would be "guilty of sheltering behind convention, of denying my heritage and failing in my regard for the people of Queensland" if he did not speak his mind. The incident occurred in the midst of a constitutional crisis, and according to military historian Chris Coulthard-Clark was "widely seen as a blatant intervention in the national political arena". The Federal government responded by advising the Queen to revoke Hannah's dormant commission to serve in place of the Governor-General if required; at the time Hannah was the second in line to serve as Governor-General, after the Governor of New South Wales. Following his succession in November 1975, Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser attempted to have the dormant commission reinstated, but the British government refused to recommend this to the Queen, citing lack of impartiality on Hannah's part. Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen made it known that he planned to extend the Governor's term, but the British government also refused to agree to this. While Bjelke-Peterson was prepared to pursue the matter, Hannah declined to let his name be put forward again.

On 9 October 1976, Hannah dedicated a memorial at Cairns to commemorate the crews of RAAF Catalina flying boats who lost their lives in the South West Pacific during World War II. His vice-regal appointment lapsed on 20 March 1977, and he was succeeded the next month by Commodore Sir James Ramsay.