It’s now a social calendar fixture for Brisbane – the annual Heart of Australia Gala Dinner that brings together The City and The Bush.

The banner for this year’s event – “From Little Things, Big Things Grow” – was distinctly appropriate, highlighting that in just three years on the roads of Queensland’s South and Central West, our Heart of Australia program has helped some 4000 patients, sparing each one of them days of travel and precious time away from their daily lives and families … and along the way, identifying no fewer than 120 critical cases needing immediate, lifesaving help.

The Gala welcomed 400 guests made up of sponsors, supporters and friends, Federal and State parliamentarians and it opened with a beautiful rendition of the iconic song “True Blue”, performed by students from Toowoomba’s Fairholme College.

Among the guests – and given resounding applause – were all 34 of the ladies who battled their way by bicycle over the Toowoomba Range in three days and more than 400 kilometres in August under their Girls Got Heart banner and have now raised more than $120,000 for Heart of Australia, led by co-founders Bec East and Keely Mancini.

In his keynote address to the Gala, our Founder, CEO and Lead Cardiologist, Dr Rolf Gomes said:

At our launch three years ago, I began my address by quoting the Chinese proverb…”a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”…well we took that step and tonight our theme is…..from little things big things grow….

Indeed, grow we have grown and growing pains we have endured. In three years the Heart of Australia program has grown to now be the dominant service provider for cardiac patents in the QLD bush”.