Rachel Nolan was elected to State Parliament in 2001.
Rachel was appointed Minister for Transport following the 2009 election.
Rachel was born, grew up and lives in the Ipswich electorate. She is from a third generation Ipswich family and her grandfather worked in the railway.
Rachel has been active in local sports clubs, having represented Ipswich region at hockey, orienteering and athletics.
Rachel actively works in the community—as a strong supporter of a number of local environment and social service organisations.
Rachel has served in a number of community roles reflecting her policy interests. She is a member of the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Brisbane Institute, Emilys List, the Australian Services Union and the Ipswich Region Chamber of Commerce. Rachel serves on the University of Queensland Ipswich Community Advisory Committee and the committee which advises The Boilerhouse, UQ Ipswichs community engagement centre. She has been named a Bilby Ambassador for her work with the Save the Bilby Fund and until recently she was a member of the University of Queensland Senate and the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre Community Advisory Committee.
In addition to these positions, Rachel founded the Sadliers Crossing River Group, a community group which is revegetating the Bremer River. In 2004 Rachel co-founded the Queensland branch of the Emilys List Partnership for Equity Network, a group committed to encouraging Aboriginal women to be elected to Parliament and in 2005 Rachel joined with the Ipswich Region Chamber of Commerce, Quota, Zonta and the Australian Institute of Office Professionals (AIOP) to establish the Ipswich Womens Development Fund, a womens group which has created the Heather Bonner Scholarship for an Ipswich woman to study at UQ-Ipswich.
Beyond her first priority of whatever is good for Ipswich, Rachels broad policy interests centre around social, economic and environmental sustainability. Rachel believes that vision and ideas are important in politics and she has published articles on, among other things, urban planning in light of rising energy costs and the need to protect green space. While her background is in economic policy, she also holds interests in education and Aboriginal issues.
Rachel is a keen bushwalker, veggie gardener and runner, having run her first marathon in 2005. She reads widely and plays guitar badly.
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