boonah to ipswich trail plan open for comment

You are invited to have your say on the draft Boonah to Ipswich Trail Plan http://www.dip.qld.gov.au/regional-planning/boonah-to-ipswich-trail.html

Your feedback will help finalise the plan and deliver a new recreation trail for non-motorised trail users in South East Queensland, and we need you to contribute your thoughts on how we make this the best trail in SEQ !!!!

How to have your say - Please download the submission form (39 KB) and provide your response under the relevant headings of the form. You can submit your feedback via post, fax or email to:

The Project Manager Draft Boonah to Ipswich Trail Plan
Department of Infrastructure and Planning
Post: PO Box 15009 City East Qld 4002
Fax: 07 3224 4683
Email: info@dip.qld.gov.au

For enquiries contact the department.

Submissions close on 18 February 2011

public education for our future

For the first time since 1973, the government is reviewing the way that it funds schools and is seeking community input.

This is your opportunity to have your say and help get a better deal for the millions of families who rely on our public schools, including everyone at Boonah State School.

More funding for public schools would mean smaller class sizes and more individual attention for students. It’s the best investment we could make for our future.

Did you know that currently public schools receive a fixed amount of around $1,000 per student each year, while private schools receive up to $7,000 per student, regardless of the school’s other income, its wealth or resources ? In total, private schools get two thirds of the money the federal government spends on schools, even though they only educate one third of students. If nothing is done to change this the public school share will fall even further.

We must move away from a system that puts private schools first and extends privilege rather than opportunity.

If you care about the education of our children and the quality of public education in Australia, and want to make a difference, please visit www.forourfuture.org.au. it’s as easy as adding your name to the petition or writing a simple submission. Working together we can convince the politicians that their top priority should be investing more in our public schools and our children.

fassifern reserve

on sunday november 28, a bunch of us got together to plant 250 trees and spread many bales of hay.

many more than in the photo came along. these were just the early birds who got there on time.

it was a great day with wonderful company, good food, and lots achieved.

lots more photos are accessible on facebook, even if you're not on facebook.

there's now around 1,000 trees in this planting, and once the project is complete, around 2,000 will be in the ground.

free trees program

the council's free trees program will be visiting springleigh park this saturday december 4 between 8am and noon. residents must bring their voucher in order to collect their trees.

environmental arts program

thanks to the regional arts development fund, BOSS will be presenting an environmental arts program next year !! basket weaving, mosaic, altered art and fabric dyeing workshops will focus on using natural resources and recycling and reusing items which could otherwise be destined for landfill.

featuring local professional artists, therese flynn-clarke, kris and melinda belfield, jo davies and patena moesker.

GASLAND

GASLAND the movie screens at the boonah cultural centre this weekend. screenings at 10am and 7pm friday 3 december and 7pm saturday 4 december.

fracking is now happening in australia, and you can find out more and contribute to the discussion at http://www.gasland.com.au/

there's also a petition to the QLD government calling for a moratorium on coal seam gas until the full effects of the industry are known.

community planting day

sunday, november 28 is our planting day at the fassifern reserve (near the corner of the Boonah Fassifern Road and the Cunningham Highway). this is the site of our caring for our country revegetation funded by the federal government and supported by council.

there's currently around 500 trees in, and by the time the project is complete, there will be around 2000. feel free to bring any friends along who may be interested, and a plate to share for morning tea. a chair would also be a good idea. it should be a fun morning.

the day will focus on the planting and starts at 9am to be followed by a short meeting with morning tea. this will be our last get together for the year, so we won't be having a lengthy meeting, however if you have any pressing agenda items, please let me know.

we are aiming to plant a few trees and spread some mulch, so please bring along your hat, garden gloves and water bottle. buckets, mattocks or picks, and brushcutters would also be handy if that's convenient. it would be best to wear long trousers and enclosed sturdy footwear. don't worry if you're not into getting your hands too dirty, i'm sure there'll be something you can help with.

if you have any questions, please send an email.

ban the plastic bag rap

scenic rim 2030 vision on waste

council's draft waste strategy is open for comment.

Council has prepared a draft regional waste management strategy for 2010 - 2030. called 2030 Vision on Waste, the strategy considers how Council will cater for future waste and recycling needs.

this is the perfect opportunity to let council know what you think, such as the need for e-waste collections and public place recycling, the regularity of recycling bin collections, education etc.

Email comments to Adrian Smith at council.

boonah to ipswich trail

The proposed Boonah to Ipswich Trail (the Trail) is a 76km recreation trail with networks for walking, horse riding and mountain bike riding. It will connect central Ipswich to the centre of Boonah township and is located on existing properties owned by local governments, public roads (which may be formed or unformed) and small areas of state land.

The proposed Trail alignment passes through an extensive, rugged and regionally significant scenic landscape dominated by native vegetation. Major features include Flinders Peak, ridges forming the watershed between Purga Creek, Teviot Brook, Logan River and Bundamba and Deebing Creeks and the site of the proposed Wyaralong Dam on Teviot Brook.

High points along the Trail have views south and west to the Scenic Rim, east to the greater Brisbane area and Moreton Bay and north to the D’Aguilar Range.With the exception of areas managed by Ipswich City Council at Hardings Paddock and Flinders Peak, areas adjacent to the proposed Trail alignment have limited public access for outdoor recreation and few formal recreation trails.

Near the proposed Wyaralong Dam, however, there is potential to connect the Trail to future outdoor recreation facilities planned for the dam precinct.The Trail will provide recreation opportunities for the current and future populations of SEQ, especially Greater Ipswich and the Western Corridor, the planned Ripley Valley development, southern Logan City, Boonah, Beaudesert and the proposed urban centres of Greenbank Central, New Beith, Flagstone and Undullah. These nearby areas are expected to have a combined population of about 640,000 by 2026. Additional users are anticipated from elsewhere in SEQ and from around Australia and internationally.

A total of $2.4 million has been allocated for development of the Boonah to Ipswich Trail including design and construction of the trail and associated infrastructure such as horse yards, toilets, camping areas, water tanks, corridor fencing and gates, car parks, road crossings and safety, information, directional and regulatory signs.

The Boonah to Ipswich Trail Steering Committee had their first meeting on October 15. Chair is Wayne Wendt, MP, Ipswich West and BOSS is represented by Julie Jackson.

Anyone interested in testing the boonah to ipswich trail and giving feedback on what you think, should send an email to melanie.doheny@dip.qld.gov.au to register your interest by November 15 as space is limited. Priority will be given to those being a member of a local community or outdoor recreation organisation.

scenic rim local food supply chain research

have you ever stopped to think where the food you buy every day comes from? Who produced it and how? How it was transported to the place where you bought it? How many hands were involved in getting your food from the farm gate to your plate?

see the sustainable scenic rim website for the full story on how the Scenic Rim Regional Council is thinking beyond today and considering how it might support innovation and diversification in the food production area. To help achieve this goal, Southern Cross University has been commissioned to undertake research that will help understand the regular food buying habits of the local community, the food service sector and food retailers as well as what farmers are producing now and potentially could produce into the future.

if you are a local resident of the Scenic Rim region and you buy food for home or eat out in local venues/restaurants and cafes please complete the local consumer survey.

national recycling week event

national recycling week will be celebrated in boonah on saturday 13 november between 9am and 12 noon at the council forecourt.

come along and get the lowdown on recycling and composting from madame mulch and join in with the junk orchestra.

bring along any old mobiles, spectacles, corks, 2 litre coke bottles for recycling or reusing.

food and plants will also be on offer for sale, and loads of information on recycling for our region.

boonah bookfest

the boonah and district cultural foundation's annual bookfest is on again next saturday november 6 between 9am and 1pm at the boonah cultural centre. there'll be zillions of used books at very good prices.

if you have any books that you no longer need, please consider donating them to the bookfest. books can be left at the boonah library up until wednesday november 3.

a community garden for boonah

if you'd like to be part of a working group to set up a community garden in boonah, please contact me via boonahboss@hotmail.com

we are working with council to organise one for our local boonah community.

madame mulch survey

teachers, staff and parents who participated in this term's madame mulch waste minimisation sessions with the magic composting show and the recycling olympics are invited to spend a few minutes giving us feedback via the online survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H5RVHF6

september BOSS meeting

the next BOSS meeting is 3pm this sunday september 19 at 6 macquarie street boonah. visitors and new members welcome. please bring a plate to share, and any spare produce that you'd like to share with the group.

agenda includes project updates on the waste education program, fassifern reserve revegetation project, aquaponics; report backs from the brigalow field day and arrow energy coal seam exploration info session, as well as funding news.

home sustainability assessments

Nancy Kent HO50147 and Andrew Kent HO50148, are certified home sustainability assessors who will be at the springleigh markets in boonah on saturday september 25, with an information stall about the free home sustainability assessment scheme which is a federal government initiative of the department of climate change and energy efficiency.

bookings can be made at the markets or there's an opportunity to get in early and arrange a free home energy audit with vacancies on friday 24th September at 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm.

assessments take about one and a half hours to complete, and a tailored report is then sent to your home by post.

Nancy and Andrew are also able to take bookings for follow up visits which are planned to be monthly. To book, please phone 3899 1575 or 0407 059 509 or email with your name, address, phone number and your preferred time.

biodegradable decomposition vs degradation composition

Congratulations to Jo Davies (Madame Mulch) on her winning paddock sculpture, depicting the contrast between the relatively rapid breakdown of a ‘biodegradable decomposition’ of a compost heap - versus - the extremely slow breakdown of a ‘degradation composition’: a ‘rubbish’ heap made from mixed materials including recyclable resources collected over a two week period of household waste.

As a fitting tribute to Jo's passion for reducing landfill through community waste education, the esteemed judge, internationally acclaimed recycled sculpture artist, Christopher Trotter, has awarded her sculpure as the winning entry.

The sculpture is on display near the corner of the Boonah Rathdowney and Milford Roads in Boonah, and includes some beautiful items like roadkill and lots of plastic.

rubbish free lunch competition

Students who have participated in the Madame Mulch waste education sessions are invited to contribute their best ideas about reducing waste by describing the choices and actions you can make to achieve a ‘rubbish free lunch’.

In 100 words or less, write the story of how you actually came to have a healthy, delicious lunch that you took to school. Decide what food you could have in your lunchbox – things that have a minimum of packaging, so that the end result after eating your lunch is rubbish free. Describe the plan of what you wanted to eat, then discuss your choices with your parents about buying no packaging foods or food with packaging that can be composted or recycled rather than being thrown into the rubbish bin to go to land fill. Here is a chance for a student to win and take home the desktop mini recycling wheelie bin that has been held at your school since Madame Mulch presented information sessions on composting and recycling.

The competition is running across the eleven local schools around the Boonah region. There'll also be an overall winner who will be awarded a great prize of a cap made from five recycled plastic bottles and a book called One Planet Living, A Guide to Enjoying Life on Our One Planet.

Email entries to mailto:boonahboss@hotmail.com by this Friday September 10.

scenic rim guide

thanks to julie barns and leah lovelock, the scenic rim guide is now live !! including information on community services, business, events and a page devoted to children's activities, the site will grow with more input from the community. Visit the site to include your information.

volunteer grant

thank you department of families, housing, community services and indigenous affairs !! BOSS has received funding through the volunteer grants program to purchase a marquee, tables, chairs and fuel money to support our volunteers at events.

july meeting

the July BOSS meeting will be held at sharon and max's at 5 sommers road mt french on sunday july 25 at 3pm.

please bring a plate of food to share and feel free to bring along any of your excess produce to share with the group.

aquaponics is the go !!

BOSS recently hosted a field trip venturing to Murray Hallum’s Practical Aquaponics at North Maclean. Twenty five eager visitors lapped up Murray’s informative talks and were very impressed with the quality of the lush fruit, vegetables, herbs and fish growing in his aquaponics system.

BOSS purchased the set of DVDs, Aquaponics made Easy and the Secrets of Aquaponics, for the benefit of members. Thanks to one keen participant, a local demonstration project is getting underway at kalbar, with a view to sharing more information locally on the concept. We believe this will be the first of many aquaponics endeavours around boonah.

comments from the visit included “another enjoyable day. The aquaponics setup was very inspiring and Murray was very personable and informative”, “fantastic, always wanted to learn and see aquaponics in action with a view to implementing the system. A great day !!” and “got our creative juices flowing, now need to do it !!”

so thank you Murray for a fantastic day, sharing your knowledge and tasty lettuce. We are pleased to give you a year’s honorary BOSS membership, a small token of our appreciation for your generosity.

picnic lunch at jubilee park beaudesert, before returning home to boonah.

raffle prize winners

major thanks to our generous supporters who donated prizes and to everyone who bought (and sold) tickets in the world environment day raffle. here are the winners -

mt barney lodge mid week accommodation package - angela collyer
barney creek vineyard six bottle wine package - kerri jessup
'couture' by cherie strong - adrian davis
david bland picture framing $75 gift voucher - kathy bensted
david bland clock repairs $75 gift voucher - trevor weber
five class yoga course with jo - margaret freeman
story tree gift pack - joseph monsour
welded steel bowl crafted by max gordon - kris and melinda belfield
boonah to ipswich rail trail shirt - peter van der veen
earth mama belly dance class voucher - marina izat

congratulations everyone !!

world environment day video

there's heaps of pics on facebook, accessible even if you aren't on facebook.

the madame mulch show

the first of the madame mulch waste education sessions was held yesterday at the warrill view state school.
what a lovely school with postive and interested students.
yesterday the madame mulch show focused on composting, and next week she will be presenting a recycling session.
thanks to the scenic rim regional council for funding this program.

environmental celebration a huge success

The inaugural World Environment Day celebration held in Boonah on Saturday was a tremendous success on all accounts.

Sharon Murakami, president of the Boonah Organisation for a Sustainable Shire (BOSS) who hosted the celebration, says, “the event was a resounding success, with an overall highlight for BOSS being the crowd’s readiness to get involved and embrace the day’s activities.

“Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with everybody loving the interactive and hands on approach, and the diversity of interesting activities and displays to explore.

The BOSS low food mile slow food stall was a great hit with fresh home grown home made food served on compostable sugarcane plates and cups. “

The community certainly embraced the day, with even the mayor drawn into the rhythm of the day beating up a storm in the drumming tent.

There were many highlights including the moving Welcome to Country, the multitude of workshops and activities, Madame Mulch, the acapella ode to Sugarloaf, the poetry of Judith Wright, the recycled fashion parade, belly dancing featuring local alpaca felted costuming, stalls ranging from bamboo to goatsmilk soap to wild soapnuts to Ugandan wooden crafts, Christopher Trotter’s ‘Chook Racer’ recycled sculpture to young Cassidy Davies’ aluminium can ‘Candelier’, and other inspiring altered art creations produced on the day.

Post highlights are the comments already received since the event including “That was sooooo much fun at yesterday's festivities! Thanks for bringing all those lovely folk together and creating a really special day of awareness !! We all loved it and came home feeling energised and inspired. Such a great vibe !!; and "we had a great time and feel really motivated to get into sustainability stuff!!”

A steady flow of people streamed through the site throughout the day, with around 300 visitors taking in the earth friendly sounds, sights and tastes on offer at the Outlook.

The common response on the day was let’s do this again next year, and it’s clear that everyone is already looking forward to World Environment Day becoming an annual celebration which can only grow in its success.

World Environment Day is important because it provides a focal point for the community the opportunity to celebrate and come together in promoting and spreading the message of sustainable living. Our event is a wonderful example of how that can come together to provide the tools to understand that sustainability is achievable and not out of reach. We are fortunate in that rural communities are in a much better position to lead the way in sustainable living.

BOSS thanks everyone involved, from the Department of Environment and Resource Management, the Outlook, the Scenic Rim Regional Council, those who donated raffle prizes, local produce, plants and baked goods, and our wonderful band of volunteers, entertainers, stall holders and visitors, for their wonderful enthusiasm in embracing World Environment Day.

“It’s heartening to know that members of our community are aware and committed to sharing the ideals of working towards a more sustainable and greener place in which to live and achieving a sense of well being and caring for themselves, country and each other, “ says Sharon.

mt barney lodge birdweek

Birdweek is held during National Threatened Species Week - 8-12 September 2010, and is the ideal time to reflect on and appreciate bird biodiversity.The threatened Glossy Black Cockatoo and endangered Eastern Bristlebird are both local inhabitants of the Mt Barney Area. Mt Barney Lodge has an onsite conservation project for the Glossy Black Cockatoo, is a partner of the Glossy Black Conservancy, and supports Eastern Bristlebird surveys in the area.

Birdweek “Conservation through Education” over one exciting week, Mount Barney Lodge will be hosting bird experts who will conduct guided tours, slideshows and structured workshops to extend your birding knowledge. This program is suitable for amateur or intermediate birders.

Birdweek Leader Barry Davies from Gondwana Guides (Winner of the 2005 and 2009 Australian Eco Guide of the Year) will be the lead guide for the field trips, and will conduct early morning, day and evening guided birdwalks. Barry also lives within the Scenic Rim, and is well known nationally and internationally for his birding expertise. Other leaders will also be on hand to ensure that the leader to participant ratio is personal.

Birdweek Packages - 2 day all inclusive packages (Wed-Fri or Thurs-Sun) start from $3954, and day (Wed-Sun) all inclusive packages start from $775.

A full Birdweek program is available upon request by phoning 07 5544 3233 or email Mt Barney Lodge or visit their website.

Image courtesy of Glossy Black Conservancy

world environment day program

Free workshops all day, entertainment, great food, wine, stalls and displays focusing on the hand made, locally grown, sourced and created (or recreated) products - featuring low food miles.

Main Stage
9.30am Official Opening
9.40am Welcome to Country
11.00am Recycled Fashion Parade
12.00 – 3pm Live Music
1.30pm Earth Mama Belly Dance

Junk Orchestra Workshops
10am – 10.30am
11am – 11.30am

Sustainability Talks
10.30am – 11.00am
11.30 am – 12noon

Drumming Workshops
9.00am – 9.30am
10.15am – 10.45am
11.30am – 12noon

Altered Art Workshops
11.30am – 12.30pm
2.00pm – 3.00pm

Wildlife Presentations
10.30am – 11.00am
12.30pm – 1.00pm

bread tags

a collection point will be set up on world environment day for bread tags. these are collected, recycled and replaced with funds for necessary support for a local boy with muscular dystrophy.
I have been collecting all year and I still only have half a bottle !! zillions more are needed. so instead of tossing yours in the bin, please keep them for this worthy cause.
please keep collecting after world environment day. they can be given to pam at blue care in macquarie street, boonah.

madam mulch

madam mulch has beamed into boonah from mearth, a planet with zero waste. she will be making her boonah debut on world environment day with lots of advice on recycling, composting and wormfarming.

she will be running a competition to get the best kids ideas for zero waste.

signs are up

world environment day banners and signs are now up around town - well one banner has been up for a few weeks now.

one is at the fassifern reserve, the site of the tree planting, one is in myfanwy's paddock at dugandan and another at the entrance to the outlook, our fantastic local partners for this event.

thanks to cherie, who did a beautiful job of painting the signs !! and thank you to david, ever handy and helpful who erected them.

mobile muster

To help Landcare Australia plant more trees and to celebrate World Environment Day on June 5 BOSS has joined MobileMuster’s old phones, more trees campaign where a tree will be planted for every kilogram of old mobile phones, batteries chargers and accessories recycled.

so please bring your old phones, chargers, and accessories in to World Environment Day at the outlook. over 90% of a mobile phone & its accessories are recyclable. the materials recovered can be used to make batteries, jewellery, fence posts and stainless steel.

partnering with yugambeh museum

BOSS is partnering with the Yugambeh Museum to support indigenous children of Mornington Island. A collection point will be provided at world environment day for good quality winter needs for children, toddlers and babies, such as blankets, jackets, skivvies, jumpers, singlets, beanies, pyjamas, gloves, scarves, socks, shoes and boots.

Your donations would really be appreciated.

tree planting

Recently 103 trees were planted at the Fassifern Reserve, in an effort to reduce the carbon impacts produced by the project. Twenty varieties including specialty timber trees will attract native birds, koalas, insects and butterflies. This revegetation has been supported by the Scenic Rim Regional Council, who provided the site and prepared it for planting.

Thomas Bell and Marty Moesker, from Trees Land Carbon did a fine job of planting the trees at the Fassifern Reserve which is near the intersection of the Cunningham Highway and the Boonah Fassifern Road.

altered art workshop

Drawing heavily on the gothic, Victorian and all things Jules Verne, SteamPunk is a fashion, culture and art movement that came out of the science fiction novels of the late 1980s and early 90s.

Steampunk involves turning something old and useless into something new and exciting using the minimalist of new materials. Turning junk into treasured pieces of wearable art.

Bring along any scrapbooking materials, stamps, stickers, old watches, fabric scraps, photos, bottle tops, old keys, old coins and beading materials, old junk or broken jewellery, silk or dried flowers.

If you have them, bring tools to pull things apart.

Presenters Kris and Melinda Belfield, are very experienced and talented in the craft of jewellery making. Melinda received national recognition in the 2007 Australian Designer of the Year Award sponsored by Beads Etc magazine in conjunction with The Stitches and Craft Show. She took second prize in the Thread Work Artist of the Year section. Kris’ entry in the competition was also selected to tour The Stitches and Craft Shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane that year.

aquaponics field trip

Free catered field trip to Murray Hallum’s Practical Aquaponics at North Maclean. Morning session focusing on the totally organic concept of aquaponics. As recently featured on Kosta’s Garden Odyssey (SBS,) aquaponics uses no chemicals, breeds fish, recycles and uses only about 10% of the water needed for traditional gardening or fish farming.

Sunday June 27, leaves Boonah at 9.30am and returning around 2.30pm after a picnic lunch.

the wonders of bamboo

the wonders of bamboo with john jackson, the rock doctor.

Set amidst a local bamboo grove on the side of a crater, learn about bamboo as a renewable resource and the different uses for different bamboos.

Session includes creating small items from bamboo canes and poles.

Bamboo will be supplied, but please bring tools, such as knives, hand drills, files, fine tooth saws and sand paper.

Originally scheduled for Saturday 29 May, however the rain changed those plans. The workshop has been rescheduled for Monday 14 June 2010, from 12 - 3pm $10 for materials. Session will be catered.

Email to get further information or to register.

world environment day

Celebrating all things for a sustainable lifestyle, BOSS is hosting a World Environment Day event on Saturday June 5.

Stalls, demonstrations, information, activities, hand made goods, local produce, great food, entertainment. Stallholders welcome.

Email if you'd like to get involved. We'd like to see a great range of sustainable industries represented.

All possible through the support of the Department of Environment and Resource Management, the Department of Communities and the Scenic Rim Regional Council.

felted pots with sue wright

two hour workshop - saturday 22 may
9.30 - 11.30am. $10

learn how to turn a handful of wool into a beautiful felted pot.

a fun introductory 'hands on' workshop to working with sheep wool fibre to produce a small pot.

participants will require dexterity with their hands in order to create the pot. There re several techniques involved, eg, layering cleaned and processed fleece, 'massaging', decorating, rolling and shaping.

All materials will be supplied, but please bring an old towel.

Email for more info or to book.

eco batik with patena moesker

eco batik workshop - saturday 24 april 10am - 4pm $20

Patena Moesker, amazing artist with 20 years teaching and art making experience.

Working with 100% natural fibres, first the garment will be hand dyed with
natural products like brown onion skins, tannin from wood, or aged metals.

The workshop will then teach the art of batik, a technique thought to be over a thousand years old. Patena will share her skills and fascination with the fabric dyeing method of batik, creating fabulous shapes and forms on specially prepared fabric.

The process involves dyeing fabric by making use of a resist technique; covering areas of cloth with wax, a dye-resistant substance, to prevent the fabric absorbing colors.

All materials will be supplied, however please let us know if you have some garments or fabric you'd like to recreate into a new look. These need to be 100% natural fabric or rayon. Patena will dye these beforehand in readiness for the workshop.

Email for more information and to book.

Scenic Rim Low Carbon Diet

The hunt is on for the Biggest Carbon Loser as tourism operators and community members of the Scenic Rim take the Bligh Government’s Low Carbon Diet, as part of more than $300,000 worth of community grants to cut greenhouse gas emissions in Round Four of the $1 million program.

Tourism operators and community members within the Scenic Rim are invited to a series of free workshops to improve their business sustainability for better efficiency and real dollar savings. The workshops will educate and challenge the participants to make real reductions in the carbon footprint of their business operations.

Boonah Workshops are 21 April, 4 and 19 May all at the Sports Complex between 10am and 12 noon.

More info and timetable for workshops is on the website of Scenic Rim Escapes organisers of the program. Other sessions are at Beaudesert and Mt Tamborine.

I have a dream

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Workshops for Local Schools

BOSS is looking forward to working with Boonah and surrounding schools in 2010.

Thanks to funding from the Scenic Rim Regional Council’s Sustainability Program, local primary schools will be offered the opportunity to participate in innovative waste minimisation education.

The approach will be to support and enhance initiatives already in place in schools or to assist in introducing new concepts.

Schools will be offered a selection of themes from which to choose, with the aim of raising students’ awareness and thereby allowing them to make informed choices. The focus will be on the students as ambassadors of ‘smart waste’ behaviours, spreading the message within their socialising circles and families.

Far more than just the usual recycling messages, the program includes the opportunity learn from the entertaining Madam Mulch.

Heavily involved in the program are Rob and Jo Davies who are well known for creating junk instruments and orchestras where they improvise music from recycled materials. Their Dumplings Junk Band featured at the Recycling Festival hosted by the Cubberla-Witton Catchments Network in 2009.

BOSS to boost community awareness on being ‘resourceful’

BOSS was thrilled recently to receive ten thousand dollars from the Queensland Government through their Natural Resources Awareness grant program. The grant forms part of the government’s Toward Q2 Green Strategy.

BOSS President Sharon Murakami, said, “BOSS has been working on the ground with local community, local council and other government agencies for several years to promote and encourage sustainable living.”

“The Natural Resources Awareness grant allows our organisation to further our objectives and provide the community with creative and practical information and skills to live more sustainably.”

Boonah is at the centre of World Heritage sites, National Parks, and prime farming land and those living amongst such natural beauty are increasingly confronted with the challenges of modern living and the impact this puts on our natural environment.

Sharon explains, “Since BOSS was created the organisation has witnessed an increasing awareness and commitment by the local community to live and act more sustainably. However we still have challenges in reducing our collective carbon footprint. For example many of our larger primary producers do not sell locally.

Such local dilemmas formed the basis for the funding submission, such as the importance of promoting and encouraging local produce to be the first choice of the community.

The project involves a series of workshops and field days and the development of information packages which will culminate in a World Environment Day event on Saturday June 5.

Themes will include working with natural produce and products in the garden and in the home, including aquaponics, the myriad uses of food and waste, caring for chooks, creating musical instruments from junk, fabric making using organic material and low energy cooking methods.

The project also includes a component of tree planting to offset carbon impacts, and collation of information regarding local recycling opportunities and locally sourced products.

The overall aim is for the Boonah community to have an increased awareness of what is grown and produced locally, how to limit impacts on landfill by creatively upcycling and freecycling, and how to reduce carbon footprints.

Changing community landfill attitude and behaviour is vital as the Scenic Rim Regional Council recently undertook a carbon audit which highlighted landfill sites are the region’s largest emitters of carbon.

BOSS will work with other community groups particularly those who have a focus on primary produce and the natural environment in developing the project.

Already plans are underway for the program to provide educational workshop support to a new gardening working bee initiative where people will exchange their labour, produce, and helpful gardening advice.

BOSS member Jo Davies who is coordinating the gardening exchange scheme sees the Natural Resources Awareness grant as providing an invaluable opportunity for educational resources to transform an idea into a long-term practical solution to acting locally and living more sustainably.

For more information regarding the upcoming workshops or field trips, or to make general enquiries with BOSS please contact BOSS via email at boonahboss@hotmail.com or phone 5463 4774.

SEQ Living Landscapes Forum

BOSS coordinated the South East Queensland Living Landscapes Forum held in Boonah during September 2008.

The forum was hosted by the Regional Landscape and Open Space Advisory Committee and presented by the Queensland Government Department of Infrastructure and Planning and the South East Queensland Council of Mayors.

The keynote speaker was Dr John Williams, BSc Agr (Hons) PhD Commissioner of the Natural Resources Commission of New South Wales.

The forum focused on solutions for urban and regional dependencies to enhance livability; managing multiple values to maintain economically viable and socially vibrant communities; and working together in an uncertain future of climate change and increasing fuel prices.

The forum also included the launch of the Fassifern Rail Trail and a Tree Planting Ceremony.
















Entertainment during the forum included Sounds of the Land, a celebration of Australian bush music with Bush Telegraph, and many field trips around the beautiful Boonah region.

welcome to the blog of the boonah organisation for a sustainable shire

BOSS focuses on the values, principles, and aspirations which underpin a sustainable future for Boonah and beyond. BOSS is committed to ensuring our community has a vibrant, caring and green future with a visible connection and celebration of its past and the natural environment.
Membership is open to everyone who shares those goals.

Currently our membership extends from Boonah across Beaudesert and Mt Barney, and over to Beechmont, the Gold Coast and Brisbane.