The GBSAN float in the Apple & Grape Festival parade was a crowd favourite. Special thanks to Sally Gebbett for her wonderful creative skill to make Queenie the Quoll as well as all the animal templates. Thanks also to our amazing team of volunteers who helped decorate and man the float.

The responses to the GBSAN candidate sustainability survey are now in. The survey was undertaken to gauge interest and support amongst local government election candidates on the Southern Downs for a variety of sustainable development initiatives that fall within the Council’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy.

We have asked all candidates a series of questions relating to sustainability. We will post their responses on our SDRC Election page as they are received.

Two members of GBSAN’s Resource Recovery team recently visited the Toowoomba Landfill Gas facility in Toowoomba. Toowoomba Regional Council (TRC) are saving their ratepayers around $600,000 per year in energy costs since the extracted gas is used to power the Wetalla Water Treatment plant which is sited next to the waste facility. In addition, a further $150,000 per year in carbon credits is generated.

Congratulations to founding member of GBSAN, Liz Bourne, for her Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), awarded on Australia Day 2024. Liz has been an integral part of GBSAN since it’s inception and volunteers with many conservation and environmental projects and organisations.

Community Engagement team update including markets, film night and the Apple & Grape float, as well as exciting developments are happening for the GBSAN Biodiversity Team partnering with Southern Qld Landscapes, Granite Borders Landcare and the Quoll Society of Australia.

You’re invited to attend a movie night to see Rachel’s Farm on Saturday 10 February, and to help us prepare a GBSAN float for the Apple & Grape Harvest Festival parade.

Community outreach at market stalls, movie nights & a float in the Apple & Grape Festival parade. Can you help?

The Resource Recovery group have been working on proposals and gathering information about potential biogas projects in the region. Read about some of these ideas.

The current system of household chemical waste treatment within the Southern Downs places residents in an impossible position – where chemical waste is not accepted in kerbside bins or at any of the waste facilities, but no scheme exists for residents to safely dispose of household chemicals.

The Local Government elections in March will be a major focus for GBSAN in the first quarter of 2024. This is one of the big opportunities for GBSAN this year and our mission to support initiatives that create a more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable Granite Belt. If we are to achieve our goals we must develop a strong and positive working relationship with the next Mayor and councillors.

GBSAN has developed a Proposal to introduce a Household Chemical Hand-in Scheme which we have asked the Southern Downs Regional Council to implement. It will help keep toxic chemicals out of the environment and it would be an initiative that the SDRC could be justifiably proud of.

We have continued to focus on emerging technologies for the recycling of waste and for the production of energy from these resources. There is so much happening in Australia and around the world to assist in making the planet healthier and saving money for businesses, and local and national authorities at the same time.

The Granite Belt Sustainable Action Network is keen to connect with the community. To make that happen we’ll be holding weekly stalls at the Farmer’s Markets in the Stanthorpe Railway Station precinct on Saturday mornings and an occasional Saturday stall in the Piazza. This will create an opportunity to engage with one another about sustainability issues that impact our beautiful region.

The recent formation of the GBSAN Community Engagement Team emerged to focus on continuing to raise awareness, educate and communicate the need for a sustainable future for our community.

The Southern Downs has now had the experience of hosting the construction of two large renewable energy projects, the UQ solar farm near Warwick and Acciona’s MacIntyre Wind Farm near Karara. There has been a fair bit of debate regarding the benefits and impacts of these projects.

The global news is not good. The Antarctic ice registers a record retreat, the Mediterranean is ringed by fire caused by record temperatures, the Gulf Stream slows and the US and Canada experience devastating forest fires (the list is much, much longer but I won’t go on). There appears to be little concern locally with the possible exception that a few farmers who are nervous about what the summer may bring.

Several GBSAN members went along with about 50 people from local environmental groups to visit the new wind farm going up in our region last weekend, south west of Warwick Qld.

Domestic and feral cats are estimated to kill over 300 million native birds and animals in Australia every year.

As a 100% volunteer organisation we are only as strong and effective as our membership and support base.  All our teams rely on committed people volunteering their time to make our community more sustainable and maintain our region's phenomenal landscape.