The Governor’s Chair is not a golden throne or a grand old barley-twist oak chair from the Nineteenth Century. As some of you who have travelled to Spicer’s Gap (near Cunningham’s Gap on the Great Dividing Range, west of Brisbane) will know, the Governor’s Chair is a huge rock on the edge of a cliff from where one can sit in relative comfort and safety (if you don’t mind heights), and take in the spectacular panoramic view of the range. Sir Charles Fitzroy, the first Governor General (1854), thought the view so wonderful that he made the arduous journey on more than one occasion – hence the name.

Nowadays the trip is a mere two hours from Brisbane but the last nine kilometres are mostly on a gravel road going up and takes about half an hour (if you value your car). We didn’t meet a single other car going up or down – Chris and I felt like we had the world to ourselves. Feeling like Adam and Eve, we ate our picnic on the Governor’s Chair and promised each other that we would think of this day often during the next several weeks when Chris will be back in England and I will be staying on to paint and write on my own.

It was Chris’s first visit to Spicer’s Gap and my second; last time, about fourteen years ago, I was with my dad and my eldest brother and his wife – Bill and Lita knew that Dad and I would love it. So, of course, when we reached the Governor’s Chair I thought of my late father – in my mind’s eye I could see him sat on the rock – and I felt that he was with me as I sat in the same spot and looked across at the breath-takingly beautiful view…