Small things done now will be disproportionately important in decades to come.

NEXT MEETING   Annual General Meeting - 7pm Thursday 21st December at Sunnybank Hills library     
Level 2 Sunnybank Hills Shoppingtown
Cnr. Calam Rd. and  Compton Rd.  Sunnybank Hills

PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2006   (Extract)

This year has been one of consolidation with Karawatha Forest balanced by pressures outside it.  Many of the potential threats to the integrity of the Forest have been repulsed.  The proposed potable water pipeline will not happen and we have had an assurance that there will be no draining of the quarry lake as part of the plan to use aquifer reserves as alternative supplies. Once again we have had assurances that there will be no train line down the Motorway through the Forest. Vehicular traffic has been further reduced and the Australian Army, along with Brisbane City Council and the SES, were exemplary removing 54 cars from their watery grave in the quarry as part of Clean-Up Australia Day.  The Compton Road Wildlife Corridor is proving a resounding success with Council winning awards and the research project under Prof. Daryl Jones being extended for a further three years.  There has been extensive and, in some cases, unexpected fauna use of the facility.

Two significant losses impacted the Society deeply this year.  The folding of pioneer community group and long-time leader in the fight for urban bushland, Toohey Forest Protection Society, creates an inevitable weakening of the fabric of community involvement preservation. They were the original template for our Society and set precedents for negotiating environmental outcomes years before other well-known groups were even formed.  Also, we suffered the loss of hard-working member Gail McConville after a brave and protracted fight against ill-health.  Our sympathies go out to her husband Peter, who has continued to offer his services to the Society.

Various people and groups have contributed to the education and efforts of the Society.  Many of them would say they were just doing their jobs and we know we can continue to expect and maintain a solid working relationship with them. However, we would particularly like to single out the Environmental Defenders office, which, through the efforts of Jo Bragg especially, along with Larissa Waters, Anita O’Hart and Rebecca help to keep our heads above the legal waterline on the various cases in which we are presently involved, along with such as our submission to the Integrated Planning Act investigation.  A solid rock through all this has been our member Ray Ison, and his Company, a constant source of good advice and direction. Of special note in the environment movement have been Wayne Cameron from Bulimba Creek and Rob Scott from Oxley Creek who have maintained links with the Society and kept coordination lines with those catchments active. Gary Crocker maintains links with us particularly on issues regarding the Johnson Rd/Glider Forest area. All members of the Committee and those attending meetings have contributed thoughtfully and with passion to the best interests of the Society.  Our group owes a special debt to Treasurer Al D’Costa, who stepped in at a tenuous time, and calmly and efficiently sorted out the potential difficulties our financial situation might have conceivably been facing and true to his word, served faithfully for three years.   Special mention must once again go to Vice-president Ted Fensom, whose indefatigable and mind-boggling diversity of involvement in any number of issues can extend to areas way beyond the Society’s immediate theatre of interest, but who can always be relied on to head us in a good direction if not put us straight over a particular concern.  Finally, I wish to personally thank Jane Cajdler for working with me so closely. Without her help I would have been all at sea various times this year.  I know that Jane and I, as well as Bernice, Nikki, Vivienne Reddy, John Reid, Ted, Dennis, Margaret Parkhill, Margaret Tompson and others in the Society cannot guarantee our length of service to the Society, and to continue the work we should once again look afield for those who will one day follow the lead of those who established the Society.

NO JANUARY MEETING

Please note that there will be no meeting in January.  Time to take a little break and do a bit of unwinding.
Next years first meeting will be on Thursday February 15th 2007.

AGM REPORT

Thank you to all those who attended our recent AGM. A new committee was elected and is rearing to go in 2007.

The committee consists of:-
President – Thomas Creevey,  Vice President – Ted Fensom,  Secretary – Jane Cajdler, Treasurer -Emma Jin.
The year ahead promises many challenges which will no doubt see many positive outcomes benefitting the Forest.

BUSH WALK DECEMBER

Please note the December bush walk will be held on  Sunday 17 December instead of 31st.
We will be leaving from Elizabeth St Trinder park entrance at 7am sharp.
January 2007 bush walk will leave from Illaweena St.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“The human community and the natural world will go into the future as a single sacred community or we willboth perish in the desert”                       Thomas Berry

A pair of green thighed Frogs in amplecant. If the dry conditions persist there will be no breeding this year.Photo by Ed Meyer

DATES TO REMEMBER - DECEMBER/JANUARY

Report illegal activities to 3403 888