Our Mt Barney social investment & project
Our regional project: partnerships with award winning Landcare group helps make a special investment in the future of South East Queensland.
Thanks to the support of our members and its long term partners, the Bulimba Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee (B4C) was pleased to make its social investment in 2015 to secure a 129ha buffer area for the World Heritage Listed Mt Barney National Park.
The property contains remnant Eucalypt Forest, maturing regrowth and has native grass understory in excellent condition. These forests provide habitat for Koalas, Glossy Black Cockatoos and other wildlife.
The property is in the Yamahra Creek Catchment adjacent to the Mt Barney National Park and it links a northern fragment of the National Park to main part of the Mt Barney World Heritage area to the south.
B4C has used its own funds to buy this property for its habitat and landscape linkage values. We have made this investment to achieve and social and environmental return not a financial one and as such it is a social investment in the region’s future.
This investment by B4C has been made possible both by the hard work of its members and helped by the long term support of our partners and clients over the last 17 years. We want to acknowledge the long term support of our networking partners including Powerlink, SEQ Catchments, Brisbane Catchments Network, Department of Corrective Services, Landcare Queensland and Carindale Connect; our contract clients Powerlink, Queensland Urban Utilities, Qld Motorways, Transport Main Roads, Ipswich Council and Reynoldsman P/L; and major funding partners Federal Government, State Government, Brisbane City Council and Port of Brisbane P/L. We would like to thank them for their support of our Landcare initiatives by choosing to partner with us in business operations.
Their investment in us has allowed to us achieve many on-ground outcomes in Bulimba Creek and nearby areas. This partnership has also created this opportunity for us to make this social investment. Through careful management and the hard work of our volunteers on the many different projects we have built up a surplus to look after the long term financial future of the B4C.
In reviewing how to invest this surplus B4C has decided to invest part it to purchase this land for nature conservation. This is our way of investing any surplus funds back into the future of our community and environment and we choose to do this “for love, not money”.
We are working closely with the adjacent Bartopia Nature Refuge to manage the Yamahra Creek area for its natural values. This investment is also achieves a high priority action in the SEQ Regional Natural Resource Management Plan, developed by SEQ Catchments, which B4C is a partner in.
Simon Warner CEO of SEQ catchments lauded the investment saying:
This investment is an example of how community through a well-managed social enterprise can make a significant difference and is a testament to the leadership, foresight, drive and commitment of the leaders of B4C and all their volunteer members. If all the community of SEQ were to mobilise in a similar way the dream of a sustainable future for our community will become a reality.
Established in 1997, B4C has created over 350ha of habitat and helped protect an additional 460ha of wildlife habitat in Bulimba Creek and our volunteers have committed over 300,000 hours to protect and restore its environment. With the support of our long term partners and using largely our own funds we have developed the Southside Sustainability centre and B4C Headquarters at Carindale. While most of our activities are firmly based in the Bulimba Creek Catchment in Brisbane City, B4C has been involved in catchment partnership activities in other areas since winning the National Riverprize in 2005. We have a long standing partnership with the Gregory River in FNQ and the European Rivers Network in the Loire River France. We have helped campaign for the Mary River and for the past 3 years have actively supported the Brisbane Catchment Network.
This latest partnership project builds on these efforts to reach out and support other catchments and it is particularly satisfying that this latest project is making a significant contribution in our own region.
