We held our Annual General Meeting on 13 March 2024 and have a new committee

for the coming year. The new committee:

• Peter Dowling, Dean  (Botswana)

• Archana Singh, Vice Dean  (India)

• Andres Arroyo, Committee member and next Vice Dean (Uruguay)

• Marjon Wind, Secretary  (Netherlands)

• Diana Lopes, Treasurer  (Portugal)

• Michal Horvath, Immediate Past Dean  (Slovakia)

• Sandra Micallef, Committee member-Digital content (Malta)

Update June 2024

With the opening of the Consulate General of India's office in Brisbane, Ms Archana Singh had to relinquish her position of Honorary Consul for India, and subsequently as Vice Dean of the Consular Corps of Queensland.

Mr Andres Arroyo, Honorary Consul for Uruguay, has been appointed to the role of Vice Dean.

We held our Annual General Meeting on 28 February 2023 and have a new committee

for the coming year. The new committee:

• Michal Horvath, Dean  (Slovakia)

• Peter Dowling, Vice Dean  (Botswana)

• Michael Rosemann, Secretary  (Germany)

• Diana Lopes, Treasurer  (Portugal)

• Daniel Gschwind, Immediate Past Dean  (Switzerland)

• Archana Singh, Committee member  (India)

• Sandra Micallef, Committee member  (Malta)

Dear Fellow Member,

Welcome to another Consular Corps year.

We held our Annual General Meeting on 28 February 2023 and have a new committee for the coming year. Please allow me to introduce your committee:

• Michal Horvath, Dean

• Peter Dowling, Vice Dean

• Michael Rosemann, Secretary

• Diana Lopes, Treasurer

• Daniel Gschwind, Immediate Past Dean

• Archana Singh, Committee member

• Sandra Micallef, Committee member

We are looking forward to serving you and the Corps for another year. A big thank-you to last year’s committee for their hard work and to our outgoing Dean Daniel Gschwind for his leadership and guidance. We did not let him get away. He will remain on the committee for the coming year. 

You will be pleased to hear that the membership fee has been kept at last year’s rate ($250). 

Those attending the AGM yesterday heard our plans. This year’s focus is on getting a better understanding of what the Corps does and what it should be doing. We welcome your input in that regard. We are going to have a planning meeting in the next couple of months to have a formal discussion about the direction of the Corps. If there is to be a theme to the year, it is the development of trade opportunities for our member countries.

We are putting out invitations to form sub-committees to address specific areas of interest, for example the Olympics. There is also an interest in collating the history of the Corps dating nearly 170 years, all the way back to the appointment of the first consul here in Brisbane in 1855. You may have other ideas.

A request has been made to find out whether office space can be made available in the city for consuls to use. We will investigate that with the Brisbane City Council.

We will also have some fun. The Dean’s function is to be a river cruise. And we have a date for our Christmas Function, so you can plan early: 13 December 2023.

We are working on making our website the first port of call for Consular Corps issues and encourage you to have a look and update your section where needed.

Most importantly, we are grateful that you have taken the time to be a member and to contribute to our great cause.

The Annual General Meeting of The Consular Corps of Queensland was held on the 15 March 2022 and it was announced that the Office Bearers for 2022-23 are as follows:

Dean: Mr Daniel Gschwind  Hon Consul of Switzerland

Deputy Dean : Dean Mr Michal Horvath  Hon. Consul of Slovakia

Secretary: Prof Michael Rosemann  Hon. Consul of Germany

Treasurer: Mrs Diana Lopes  Hon. Consul of Portugal

Committee Member: Mr Peter Dowling AM  Hon. Consul of Botswana

Committee Member: Mrs Archana Singh  Hon. Consul of India

Committee Member: Mrs Sandra Micallef  Hon. Consul of Malta

To the Members of The Consular Corps of Queensland

Dear colleagues,

It is a great honour to be your Dean for the coming 12 months. On your behalf, I extend our gratitude to our former Dean, Anton Swan OAM and his Committee for the excellent work they have done under the most challenging circumstances, and we thank you. Hopefully, we can put the problems of 2020 behind us and look positively into the future.

It gives me great pleasure, to introduce our new Executive Committee, as presented during our Annual General Meeting on 20 April 2021, to you.

• Dean – Irina Bruk, Russian Honorary Consul-General in Queensland and Victoria. I have been in this role since June 2007. Before that, I was for three years the Russian Honorary Consul Designate. My background is in International Business. I am holding a Bachelor Degree in Information Technology and Library Science and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Diplomatic Protocol and Consular Affairs from the Russian Academy of Diplomacy.

• Vice-Dean – Mr Daniel Gschwind, Honorary Consul Switzerland since April 2008.

• Secretary – Prof Michael Rosemann, Honorary Consul Federal Republic of Germany since May 2016.

• Treasurer – Diana Lopes, Honorary Consul Portugal since December 2015.

• Member - Michal Horvath, Honorary Consul Slovakia since July 2008.

• Member - Peter Tobin, Honorary Consul Norway since October 1998.

Furthermore, we will have the following two sub-sommittees

• Web management - Sandra Micallef, Honorary Consul Malta since November 2016.

• Domestic Violence- Margaret Grummitt, Honorary Consul Philippines since December 2015.

Yours sincerely,

Ms Irina Bruk

Dean of The Consular Corps of Queensland

8 May 2021

The next Annual General Meeting is planned for Wednesday 31st March 2021 at the United Service Club, Spring Hill. 

During the global pandemic of COVID-19, there has been a general demand from the Consular Corps members, for assistance with their nationals' repatriation logistics. Due to the lack of information available at the time, Mr Gunther deGraeve, Hon Consul for Belgium and Prof Michael Rosemann, Hon Consul for Germany, organised digital meetings for the members of the Consular Corps to discuss mutual difficulties being faced and possible solutions. The meetings are held daily at 12noon and have been a good resource of information for all members. Mr Anton Swan acknowledged the beneficial work being done by the Taskforce, and congratulated Michael and Gunther for their initiative.