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Boonah Organisation for a Sustainable Shire (BOSS) is a membership organisation providing environmental sustainability programs through education, information, opportunities and celebrations through events such as World Environment Day Festivals, National Recycling Week Community Clothes Swaps, Waste Education and Creative Enviro Arts Workshop Programs.
BOSS' primary focus is to protect the environment and educate on ways to mitigate the effects of climate change.
A major emphasis is on reducing landfill, and BOSS partners with many local and national recycling initiatives through practical and innovative reuse and recycling opportunities, many of which focus on collecting resources for disadvantaged communities.
Over the years, sub-committees have focused on revegetation and weed control, renewable energy, opposing coal seam gas, and providing options to reduce reliance on single-use plastics.
We are very proud of the determination and resolve shown by Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic.
During the campaign against coal and coal seam gas extraction, BOSS hosted many events, such as a World Anti Fracking Day event, author talks and film screenings.
BOSS hosted Sharyn Munro, author of Rich Land, Wasteland, and Peter Ralph, author of Dirty Fracking Business, and held screenings of Bimblebox, Fractured Country and Guarding the Galilee.
Events often showcased local musicians performing original enviro pop and folk songs such as Pound of Plastic, The Value of Money, Sea Levels Rising, Coal, Keep it in the Ground and Clean Air by Eat Them Like Apples, and Save our Scenic Rim by Linda Weston and Cameron Mitchell.
who is KTSRS ?
Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic (KTSRS) was born out of a highly charged meeting at Mt Barney Lodge in February 2011 with farmers, tourism operators and others horrified by plans for an open-cut mine nearby.
What began as a localised group quickly morphed into an official sub-committee of the Boonah Organisation for a Sustainable Shire (BOSS), which allowed KTSRS to fundraise, and hold meetings and events without issue. All volunteer time could be dedicated to action rather than management.
A group which defined the actions of many in the Scenic Rim, together we would fight an invasion of companies hell-bent on building another kind of landscape: one dominated by coal mines, gas fields and more. Once the full extent of the onslaught became apparent, Mt Barney Lodge owners Innes and Tracey Larkin, and Lamington local Heidi Ross joined forces to spearhead the fight. Together, they drove the strategy and key behind-the-scenes organisation.
Innes was the public face - a gifted spokesman who was at home in front of the camera - talking to politicians, or addressing a meeting to reassure worried locals.
When not strategising, Heidi’s speciality was research and creating the maps, flyers, posters and brochures. And when she wasn’t doing that, she was rallying the media.
Tracey was pivotal in bringing to life the events, maintaining lines of communication and writing endless submissions. Protesters on Peaks was her idea and her baby.
But the KTSRS name was more. It represented the hundreds - and sometimes more than a thousand people - who dropped flyers, door knocked homes, filled local halls and stood outside shopping centres, on peaks, in paddocks or on the front line. As well, those who cooked for us, and all the people in the background who held together our families, supported the cause without direct action.
who is LTG ? 
Lock the Gate is a national grassroots organisation concerned with risky coal mining, coal seam gas and fracking. 
The Lock the Gate Alliance was formed in 2010 following meetings in New South Wales and Queensland of landholders, organisations and communities concerned about the expansion of these industries.
The fledgling concept of farmers choosing to lock their gates to these rapacious industries was both hopeful and terrifying at the same time. As this concept had only been created a few months before the formation of Keep the Scenic Rim Scenic (KTSRS), it had not yet been tested at the farm gate or in the courts. We locked our gates and crossed our fingers!
Scenic Rim was part of the early Lock the Gate campaign where landholders refused access to gas companies and refused to negotiate sale of their properties. All that was needed was a ‘no entry’ sign on the gate, and the now-iconic $2 yellow corflute triangle soon popped up all over the Scenic Rim.
Lock the Gate Alliance became a registered company limited by guarantee under the Corporations Act 2001, in March 2012.
Innes Larkin, who was the spokesperson for KTSRS, has been a board member of Lock the Gate for the past year. He says, “they were instrumental in the success of our local campaign and I’m returning their support and paying it forwards”.
Lock the Gate continues to protect land and water resources from mining impacts across Australia, as the appetite from mining companies to rapidly expand has never been greater.
Read more about the Lock the Gate Alliance and their campaigns here.
