Entertainment
8 February, 2026
Rose’s talent is flourishing
A FORMER journalist, health consultant and academic has launched her first solo art exhibition at Vivo, Palm Cove.
Cairns resident Rosalie (Rose) Spencer has translated her love of tropical gardening on to canvas in an exhibition titled ‘Rose’s Florilegium’. The collection features watercolour paintings of flowers from her own and friends’ gardens as well as from her travels.
Ms Spencer is largely self-taught, though she has participated in several watercolour workshops over the years. Her work has previously been displayed at the Cairns Art Gallery and the Tanks Arts Centre during Cairns Art Society exhibitions.
She began painting seriously after retiring in 2015 from a varied career spanning medical imaging, journalism, public health and emergency management.
Ms Spencer started her working life as a radiographer before switching to journalism, working in Cairns at the Cairns Post and later in Alberta, Canada.
She went on to serve as a public affairs officer for Queensland Health and as a communications manager for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in Canberra.
Ms Spencer also spent a year in Minnesota studying politics and volunteering for Attorney General Hubert Humphrey III, the son of Lyndon Johnson’s vice-president, Hubert Humphrey II.
Later specialising in emergency management, she co-managed the public health response to dengue fever and swine flu outbreaks in North Queensland and assisted during Tropical Cyclone Yasi and the Brisbane floods of 2011.
In 2012, she joined James Cook University as an associate lecturer in public health and communication before becoming part of the World Health Organisation’s emergency operations centre network. In that role she managed a small international team developing guidelines for countries responding to public health emergencies. These guidelines, outlined in the WHO’s ‘Framework for a public health emergency operations centre’, were later used by countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In retirement, Ms Spencer worked as a freelance writer, editor, memoir author and WHO researcher but now focuses on developing her painting practice.
Rose’s exhibition continues at Vivo until 24 March.
