Our longest serving public servant

Vol 18. Number 01, January/February 2009

By Andie Gatti

When I told principal advisor Lesley Fletcher I was from the department's Corporate Communication and Marketing (CCM) branch at central office she thought I was phoning her about a hot media issue.

In her role as right-hand person to Far North Queensland Regional Executive Director (RED) Clive Dixon, Ms Fletcher often receives calls from CCM's media unit on subjects in, or about to hit, the news.

So she was pleasantly surprised to hear this time the call was about a good news story for Education Views.

She was more surprised the story was about her. Especially when told she was Education Queensland's longest serving public servant.

'Really?,' Ms Fletcher said. 'You know I'm retiring at the end of January 2009?'

This was news to Mr Dixon who has worked with Ms Fletcher since the late 1980s when he was a principal, then an executive director and now the regional executive director.

'When I applied for the job as RED, Lesley said she'd stay on and look after me but she'd have to talk about it when she turned 70,' he said.

Ms Fletcher will be 71 in March this year.

'All sorts of people across the region, particularly principals and senior officers, ring Lesley for advice and to talk through what actions they're thinking of taking,' Mr Dixon said.

'If Lesley doesn't know the policy - which is rare - she knows who to talk to.

'Principals are always on the phone to Lesley and they are going to really miss her when she retires.

'She's got a wry sense of humour and knows a lot of history.'

Ms Fletcher started with the department in 1954 as a 16-year-old.

'I got a teacher's scholarship and was bound to the department,' she said.

'We got paid a small amount of money in Year 11 and 12 and then I did a year of college.

'We were expected to teach for three years - some of us stuck around for a long time. I've just enjoyed myself I guess.'

Born in Mareeba, Ms Fletcher taught mainly in Far North Queensland except for a brief time at Collinsville, south-west of Bowen.

When an opportunity arose to work for the department across the Far North region, Ms Fletcher moved from teaching and became a regional library advisor in 1985.

In 1998 she was appointed to her present position as principal advisor to the RED.