Into the 90’s

As we went into the 90’s our club continued with many of the projects commenced in the earlier years. Regular monthly working bees were held at the Bellbowrie Lions Park, the Cancer Door knock Appeal came around every year, we manned our Fairy Floss van at various schools and other functions donating the proceeds back to the organisation; we continued with the yearly School Debating competition which is still an ongoing sponsorship from this club.

Other projects and assistance we gave included the following.

Two canoes were donated to the Moggill Scouts

Each year we donated funds to the Bellbowrie Safety House program

Each Easter we had a major Easter Raffle selling ticket at the local shopping centres

We assisted for a number of years in running the Friary Fare at Brookfield

We purchased and erected a Bird Aviary at the War Veterans Home on Moggill Rd and started it off with about 6 budgies which grew to some 20 in the following years.

We donated $3000-00 to the local Girl guides association so that they could build their hut in Bellbowrie.

Many man hours of work was done at the Autistic School in Mt Crosby by way of repairs to the roof and guttering, gardening and mowing of the grounds, installing a hot water service as the children used to have to shower and wash themselves with cold water. We worked on a regular basis at the school for nearly 12 months.

Every year we helped at the Carols by Candlelight.

Collecting entrance fees and organising the parking at the annual Brookfield Show for a number of years raised monies.

On the Lions projects, we entered candidates in the Lions Youth of the Year and Miss Personality Quest. We continue to sell Lions Christmas cakes and Lions Mints as fundraising and supporting Lions district projects. On a regular basis we support the various Lions undertakings such as Camp Duckadang, Lions Kidney and Medical Research Foundation, Lions Save Sight etc.

In 1979 our club when first chartered was the Lions Club of Moggill and in 1990, because of the growing numbers from the Karana Downs and Mt Crosby area, we changed our name to the Lions Club of Moggill-Mt Crosby after obtaining agreement from Lions International and adjacent clubs. Our area we now draw on is officially listed as “That part of the local government areas included within the outer boundaries of Division 1 of the (old) Moreton Shire generally east and north of the Brisbane River and the other boundaries of the Pullenvale ward of the Brisbane City Council generally west of the Gap and Moggill Creeks”. When the Karana-Mt Crosby area comes under the control of the BCC, these boundaries will have to be re-defined.

In June 1991, we saw the biggest event in the Lions International organisation when Brisbane hosted the 74^th Lions International Convention. Some 60,000 Lions members came to Brisbane to attend the Convention, which lasted six days. A huge parade in the city was one of the highlights of the week with all the attendees marching under their respective country's flag. Many of our own members took part in the week either as volunteer help or attending the plenary sessions at the Boondall Entertainment Centre. Besides the Commonwealth Games in 1982 and the Expo 88, the Lions Convention was the third largest event ever to be held in Brisbane.

We assisted the Pony Riding for the disabled in various ways over the years; one was sponsoring a horse at their facility named ‘Bandit’. It was not until 1993 that we commenced with a major project for the PRDA by way of an idea from Ray Crompton in organising and running a weekend event which was to be called the Country Garden Expo with proceeds being shared between ourselves and the PRDA. The venue was the PRDA grounds, which lent itself as an ideal location for such an event. The weekend covered all aspects of gardening and landscaping with many displays and demonstration of products. For around $85-00 businesses could setup a display, stall or exhibit of their products and each year we had some 80 sites taken up. We had an excellent response from the local community who supported the event year after year.

Country Gardening Expo

The Expo took some 8 months to plan each year and it was a 100% club effort. On the actual weekend all Lions and their Ladies turned out to put on what was probably the best Gardening show in Brisbane. Our members and families enjoyed the weekend and our efforts were appreciated by the PRDA. The Expo was conducted for five years until 1997 and it was decided through competition from larger, heavily financed similar shows in the city that we would look at a different type of fundraising event.

During the recent years we have raised money for the purchase of a motor vehicle for the Blue Nurses in the Ipswich area. We contributed over a three years to the fitting out of an accommodation room at the Wesley Lodge; this is an accommodation facility for families of patients undergoing treatment at the Wesley Hospital.

We completely painted a number of rooms at Hannah’s house in Ipswich; an accommodation house for teenagers with family problems.

A few years ago, we sponsored three Canadian teenagers in the Lions Youth Exchange Program. These three stayed with a few of our lions families for a period of two and a half weeks to be shown the sights of south east Queensland.

Our three Canadian Exchange students

Most recently, we again collected in the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal.

Over the past six years our efforts have been not so much on concentrating on fundraising but transforming a large parcel of scrub land into a walking and parkland trail, known as the Lions Nature Trail at Karana Downs. This again was the vision of one of our members Bob McGregor, who saw the feasibility of restoring a significant tract of degraded land into a restored area to be used by the community. The early working bees were largely directed towards clearing unwanted infestations of Lantana and other weed species that had overcome the area. This was very strenuous work, as the lantana was all removed either by hand or by chains attached to four wheel drive vehicles. After six months this initial work was completed and the original vegetation flourished again after the removal of the lantana and creeper vine infestation. Since that time we have had innumerable working bees planting trees so as to achieve a diverse habitat and appealing tree scape-with some estimated 4000 trees having been planted. We have also been very much involved in the provision of park facilities in the form of benches and seats, water fountains and barbecue facilities. More recently a major undertaking was the building of a shelter in an area of the trail. At the end of the days work Bob puts on his billy tea and damper where people can talk over the events of the day and are able to go home with the satisfaction of knowing that they have been involved with a job well done.

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