world embroidery day

it's world embroidery day on tuesday 30 july and we'll be stitching in public again to celebrate the day. 

everyone's welcome to join us. bring your embroidery, and a chair if that's easy. we'll also have some materials on hand for you to use. you can share your skills and ideas, and we'll share ours.  

embroidery is a beautiful way to mend and extend the life of your clothes.  

started in sweden in 2011, it's meant to be a day filled with creativity for the sake of peace, freedom and equality.

 

we'll be sitting outside IGA between 9am and 12 noon. see you there :)

 

 

 

 

reclaim the void community weaving

all around the country, communities have been linking in with the reclaim the void project, and so are we. 

with the intention to 'weave country whole', these twined rugs are woven from discarded bed sheets and use hoops created from ag pipe. 

our contribution will reach the project in may to join 3,000 other rugs.

we still have lots of sessions coming up -

the thursday night creatives meet weekly from 6pm at the CWA hall, and everyone is welcome. $3 covers venue fees, and bring a plate to share if you wish. 

sessions are also running at the boonah library on wednesdays from 10am to 12 noon til 22 may. these are no cost.

we're also participating in the tamborine mountain arts trail offering free drop in sessions at the chapel at the grand chameleon between 10am and 3pm on sunday 5 may, monday 6 may, saturday 11 may and sunday 12 may.  

if you have any old bed linen (preferably cotton), please send them our way.  

fashion revolution week events

together with the most wonderful garden of possibility exhibition at the centre, beaudesert, we are proud to be partnering with the southside upcycling stitchers, beaudesert and district community arts projects, and the scenic rim regional council to host reimagine fashion - the revolution continues. 

join us for this fashion revolution week event showcasing sustainable fashion ideas, creative textile and upcycling demonstrations and tips, plus a screening of the trailblazing documentary fashion reimagined and a light lunch.

everyone is encouraged to wear something upcycled or secondhand.

saturday 13 april from 9am til 2.30pm, tickets are only $10, and available online here. 

calling all makers and menders! we're gathering outside IGA to sit and stitch for the first ever global mend in public day again as part of fashion revolution week.

standing as a beacon of change in a world inundated with fashion waste, you’ll be part of a global creative action resisting the cycle of excess through repair and reuse.

join us as we take to the streets and stitch in protest against disposable fashion.
we'll be there between 9am and 1pm on saturday 20 april.

community clothes swap

Our annual Community Clothes Swap is our celebration of National Recycling Week, and it's now our 12th year 💚

Everyone's welcome to come and join in. The event will be held at the Boonah Cultural Centre on Saturday 4 November between 9am and 1pm.

Bring along some clothes, shoes or accessories (men's, women's and children's) and it's free to swap, or it will cost just a gold coin donation to buy.

Upcycled bags will be available to purchase, as well as our battery recycling collection cans, and there'll be innovative displays and demonstrations on different ways to mend and upcycle textiles, as well as a fabric destash spot to supplement your supplies.

It's also the perfect place to ask questions about recycling, and bring along items for recycling like blister packs, disposable masks, coffee bags, water and air filters, corks (natural and synthetic), pens and markers, old plastic store cards - use our guitar pick punch to punch a pick from yours, sturdy fabric, old sheets and curtains, and bras and swimmers for collaborative recycling initiatives.

Many new recycling initiatives have been added to our recycling register, and info on these will be available, or check online for our recycling register which continues to be updated.

Right next door to the Cultural Foundation's Book Fest, another great recycling week event with thousands of low cost books.

With thanks always to the support of the Scenic Rim Regional Council.

MOVING MOUNTAINS scenic rim CSG blockade arrests

The 2012 Honour Roll

January 12 Kerry 

Charged at Beaudesert 

Luke Reade 

Steve Ross 

Innes Larkin 

Raphael Wakim 

Richard Zoomers 

Justin Hills 

Asher Zoomers 

Tracey Larkin 

Brad Beaverson 

January 13 Kerry 

Charged at Beaudesert 

Piers Shapely 

Juanita Wanda Halden 

Alan Roberts 

January 14 Kerry 

Charged at Beenleigh 

Daniel Robins 

January 18 Kerry 

Charged at Beaudesert 

Gary Wilson 

January 19 Silverdale 

Charged at Ipswich 

Linda Weston

MOVING MOUNTAINS linda weston - mosquito in a bucket

Reclusive and insular - the words that best described my lifestyle up until 2011

The first I knew of the proposed Mintovale open-cut coal mine at Croftby was a front-page newspaper headline. Subsequent searches provided me with information that left me horrified. A boundary for the Mintovale MDL was a mere 280 metres from our back deck and I also found that our property was covered by a CSG exploration permit. A double whammy.

At first, I felt nothing but a sense of numbness, soon giving way to episodes of tears on the back deck while I looked around me.

Was I guilty of ignorance regarding what had been going on? Yes! Would crying over it achieve anything? No! Could I do something about it? I wanted to, but what?

I had heard the opinion that one person, a mere drop in a bucket, could achieve nothing. All my life I have held on to the belief that, if drops keep going into a bucket, the bucket will eventually fill. How could I help fill the bucket?

Word of the pending Kerry Blockade reached me in early January 2012. People were getting arrested, and I was ready for action. Never having received so much as a parking ticket in my life, I had always found the idea of doing anything against the law abhorrent – something to be feared. The law was meant to protect us. But I could see increasing injustices. I decided I would stand. My son, Cameron, elected to stand beside me.

The morning of 19 January 2012 dawned clear and cloudless. Along with the blockade at Kerry, a flash protest at the drill site at Silverdale on the Cunningham Highway was about to happen. This time I was not going to move aside when asked.

There are instances when time seems to stand still. For a brief stretch of time, everything seemed to stop when I realised that Cameron was inside the compound and running to the drill rig.

After clambering up, he sat in the baking summer sun, proudly waving a triangular yellow Lock the Gate sign at passing traffic.

The police, when they did arrive, made a deal with Cameron. If he climbed down and left the compound with them, he would not be arrested or charged. Relief. I could have cheerfully throttled him as he exited the compound, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Instead, I told him he'd done enough for one day. I would stand alone.

We stood in position, roughly 20 of us, in a line in front of the locked gate. The senior sergeant gave the warning and asked us to move. Fellow protesters gradually moved aside. I stood my ground and, after being given three chances to move, I was arrested.

No drama. No circus. Just a peaceful, grey-haired, middle-aged protester strolling between two police officers to the police vehicle and then taken to Ipswich watchhouse. On arrival I was put into a chilly cell and there was no telling how long I was likely to be there. Wanting to put the time to some use, I settled, relaxed, meditated, and began to formulate a song from my heart that eventually became SOS - Save our Scenic Rim. Time passed.

When I was finally charged and released, the nature of my charges didn't sink in. I was tired - dazed, almost. The whole experience had become surreal. At first, I didn't realise the severity of being charged under the Petroleum and Gas Act, charges that carried a maximum penalty of $50,000. I was the second person to be charged under the Act, Drew Hutton being the first.

The words of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet came to mind: “If you think you're too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito”. They had decided to try to slap a mosquito with a sledgehammer.

During the next few weeks, legal processes and procedures were explained to me and I was given options: plead guilty at the first mention and get things over and done with, or seek an adjournment and take this thing to trial. I believed that pleading guilty would likely leave the way open for similar charges being thrown at peaceful protesters. If I saw this through, then perhaps a precedent would be 
set to discourage future instances of this happening. Could I do this?

Weeks turned to months. During those months I rode an emotional roller coaster, ranging from steely determination and thoughts of a positive outcome to feelings of helplessness.

A welcome distraction came in July when New South Wales woman Lesley McQueen put out the call for a Scenic Rim person to meet her at the Queensland - New South Wales border to continue an awareness-raising walk against the proposed Metgasgo CSG pipeline. Lesley would walk from Casino to the border, carrying a bottle of pristine water taken from the Richmond River. The water would be handed over to Queensland and carried to Swanbank Power Station. I volunteered.

Planning for the walk was well underway but my hearing date was approaching. When the day finally came at Ipswich Courthouse, it all happened so quickly. The police prosecutor tendered ‘insufficient evidence’ and the charges were dropped. Case dismissed! The court room erupted into cheers and applause. I would commence the Queensland leg of the Walk Against Gas in a week's time with an infinitely lighter load.

Cameron had elected to join me for the 125 kilometre walk and my husband, Rob. had no hesitation in volunteering to drive the support vehicle. We had become a family team of three.

Support during the Walk Against Gas came in many forms and was always welcome. Rounding a bend to see the Green Eureka flag flying above a boiling billy as we approached a rest stop is a sight I will never forget.

Mostly we walked alone. Rob, always in the near distance behind us in the support vehicle, was fondly dubbed 'The Walker Stalker'.

No matter how small a part any of us thinks we are playing, we can all contribute in our own way. And still, to this date, no other protestor has been charged under the Petroleum and Gas Act.

Will I continue to be an annoying mosquito? Absolutely! A drop in a bucket? Definitely! I might even be a mosquito in a bucket.

MOVING MOUNTAINS rod anderson's story

I knew I might get arrested but I was p….d off. I wanted them to hear me out.

The first I knew of gas drilling in Kerry Valley was when Michael Undery said he was worried. I trusted him and he wasn’t a radical person. Michael and Sally also employed some of my family, put food on my table and gave my kids a start in life. If their business was going to be at threat, it was going to threaten my construction business and it could threaten the valley.

So on the first day I turned up for Michael. And on the second day I turned up because there were people from everywhere coming in to help - they’d made the effort to be there and I wanted to know why everyone thought it was so important. I knew I also had to make my own decisions. That’s why I stood there for ten days, stewing very quietly by the strainer post, but saying nothing.

It was about sticking up for people who were getting the raw end of the deal. It was so unfair on so many levels. There was no regard given to people who had built a beautiful community of not only lovely people, lovely families, but also little farms that had made a difference in everyone’s lives. There was absolutely no regard given to that. And the thing that annoyed me more than anything was that the people representing the State Government, and more so Beaudesert, had their heads so far up their own arses that they didn’t stick up for us.

I kept things close to my chest because I didn’t want to be seen to be a fruit loop and because that's not the way you do things in the bush. Our way is to talk things over. But they refused to talk to us so I felt suspicious and pretty much backed into a corner.

At the start I believed I couldn’t get myself arrested because I had a business to run. Then all of a sudden we heard the drill rig was leaving. I remember saying: "What about if we threw all the hats on the ground and let’s just see if they’re dumb enough to drive over the top of them?" For me, the hats represented people, so essentially I felt they were driving over people just like they were driving over our dreams and our community.

From the time I put those hats down, I knew in my heart a lot of those police officers felt that we really we weren’t being treated properly. I thought that would be a really brave police officer to start kicking the hats out of the way. I knew I might get arrested, but I was angry and I wanted them to hear me out. 

I said: "I’ve got something to say here and I’m not gonna let you stop me. Has anyone really told you what it’s like? Why we’re here? We are genuinely good people. And we have been forced to come down here and bark like mongrel dogs." I really felt no-one was listening.

As I spoke, everything poured out. I remember not feeling in the slightest bit of ‘what do I say now?' I meant everything I said.

When the blockade ended, I went into a bit of a personal crisis. I was still consumed, but I was very, very, mindful that it could mess my business up something ferocious. I was scared I was going to completely ruin everything that I’ve ever worked for.

I was also worried people would think I was misrepresenting things because I was actually a builder first and a farmer second. It was too much attention. At first I didn’t realise what I had created but I did know I didn’t want to be any kind of frontman.

I also went through this big anxious thing of 'who is this guy?' 'What right does he have to be talking and throwing hats on the ground on behalf of the Kerry Valley?' Now I know - because I’ve been told - that was the right thing. And I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m so glad that I did it because no one else was going to.

I know if everyone had said ‘she’ll be right’, it would not have been right. Look at Tara now, look at the farms on the Darling Downs now with messed up water and subsidence where they drilled.

I’m still riding the ups and downs of the construction industry and getting my hands in the dirt whenever I can.