Rebecca Vonhoff - Councillor | Toowoomba Regional Council

About Deputy Mayor Rebecca Vonhoff

Rebecca was born in Toowoomba and is a fifth-generation Vonhoff on the Darling Downs. Her family were dairy farmers near Crows Nest and they still own the farm, although today the dairy herd has been replaced by a small number of beef cattle.

Rebecca lives in Toowoomba, is married and has three children. Her husband was born in Canada. They spent six years living in Toronto, Ontario while he completed his specialist medical training and they came home to Toowoomba in 2016.

Rebecca Vonhoff with birthday cake baked for child's birthday

Growing up, Rebecca attended Chiselhurst Kindergarten and Fairholme College and then went on to study at the University of Queensland, the University of Southern Queensland and Freie Universität, Berlin. She worked for 16 years in news media across local, state, national and international publications. She has been Deputy Editor of The Chronicle in Toowoomba, reported for The Australian in Sydney, sub-edited for The Courier Mail in Brisbane and was Deputy Foreign Editor of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. She also worked for Russell Mineral Equipment in Toowoomba.

She has a PhD in German history and confesses to speaking German badly these days.

She values fairness as well as courage. She believes leaders should serve.

Rebecca has lived in Brisbane, Sydney, Berlin and Toronto – but Toowoomba is home. She is happiest when she’s at the family farm or fly fishing. She’s not at her happiest when she’s mid-triathlon, but she keeps doing them, nonetheless.

In March 2020 Rebecca was elected with the highest number of votes in the local government election to Toowoomba Regional Council. She repeated this in March 2024, again topping the poll in the election.

In 2023 she became Deputy Mayor. In 2024 Rebecca became a Director on the Australian Local Government Association and a member of the Local Government Association of Queensland’s Policy Executive. She was elected by peers locally and across Queensland for these roles.

Since being elected to Council, Rebecca has challenged conventional thinking on water and prioritised long-term planning on water security as well as disaster preparedness.

Rebecca is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a former Parish Councillor at St Bart’s Anglican Church in Toowoomba, former Vice President of the Fairholme Old Girls’ Association, former Director of Clifton Community Health Services and past President of the Chiselhurst Kindergarten Management Committee.

Get in touch with Rebecca

About Toowoomba Region

Rebecca Vonhoff Guest Speaker Fairholme College

Rebecca acknowledges the Jarowair, Giabal and Western Wakka Wakka people – the traditional custodians of the land and waterways that span Toowoomba Regional Council’s 13,000km2, stretching from Yarraman in the north to Millmerran in the south.

Currently 168,000 people live in Toowoomba Region. There are people from more than 37 nationalities who call the region home and the population is projected to grow by 80,000 over the next 30 years.

The Gross Regional Product of the region as of 30 June 2019 was $12.19 billion. Traditionally the Darling Downs was an agricultural economy, but this has diversified over time so that today, health care, education, freight and logistics as well as renewable energies lead job creation and investment.

Schools, a TAFE and a university, proximity to Brisbane, an international airport, fertile farmland and a spectacular natural environment make the region a highly desirable place to live.