It wouldn't be the start of the silly season without our Annual Trivia Night Fundraiser! This month we invited members and supporters to join us for a night of fun and frivolity, and what a night we had!

As another massive month comes to a close, it is important to reflect on the powerful local actions that have taken place in our little corner of the world. 

As you are reading this, Scott Morrison is representing us in the Glasgow climate talks, where he expects to get away with shallow promises and dodgy deals to save face among world leaders, all the while abandoning his responsibility to protect Australia's people and ecosystems.

Meanwhile, we've seen North Queenslanders take real action to stand up for nature in so many wonderful ways. Through meetings, media, submissions, strikes, artworks, clean ups and petitions, people like you have made a real difference, and we couldn't be more proud of our community.

In this edition:

• NQCC Updates:
  
  • Postcard Art Auction
  • Tree Advocacy Update
  • Flying-fox Reform: Media
  • NQCC at the International Rivers Symposium
  • Meeting with Scott Stewart MP
  • School Strike 4 Climate
• Coming Up: 
  
  • Townsville Waterway Forum
  • Green Drinks
  • Trivia Night & Mega Raffle
  • Evening with the Minister
• Online Actions:
  
  • Fix Compostable Packaging in Queensland
  • Stop the Cut of Species Recovery Plans
  • Protect Birds from Mouse Poisons

On Saturday 9th October we saw the end to our four week Postcard Art Exhibition and the beginning of an exciting Fundraising Auction Night!

Art and environment lovers attended the event at Umbrella Studio of Contemporary Art (Townsville City), where each of the 125 artworks generously donated by artists from around the country were auctioned off for prices ranging from $10 to $160. The pieces were approximately postcard-size and created with our "Nature: the wonder and the tragedy" exhibition title in mind. Artworks are still available to peruse in our online gallery here.

Image source: Townsville City Council's Public Consultation Report

After approximately six months of engaging with Townsville City Council (alongside other community members and groups) regarding their approach to vegetation protection, residents were given the opportunity to provide feedback on TCC's Draft Public Tree Management Policy.

The opportunity to provide feedback closed on Wednesday 13 October, with 70 submissions received. Read on for more information on what we have learned since...

ATTENDING THE INTERNATIONAL RIVERS SYMPOSIUM ON BEHALF OF THE BURDEKIN

24th International Rivers Symposium 27-30 Sept | The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus

NQCC Committee Member and volunteer John Connell was invited to attend the 24th International Rivers Symposium, held in Brisbane in late September. This was an invaluable opportunity to introduce an international audience to some of the issues affecting the Burdekin River and to highlight NQCC's role in advocating for an integrated management approach.

Below is John's account of the event...

September was a whirlwind of Postcard Art, exciting campaign developments and our AGM! Hence September's Paperbark is only reaching you now. We hope you don't mind.

Our 2020/21 Annual Report has just been released, and we're very excited to share it with you. It outlines a lot of activities that we are incredibly proud of from the last financial year. We hope you enjoy the read!

This edition of Paperbark is packed full of recommended reading, calls to action and date savers. Why not treat yourself? Find a quiet place and maximise your enjoyment of this humble newsletter - you won't regret it!

In this edition:

• NQCC Updates:
  
  • AGM
  • Tree Advocacy Update - have your say!
  • Burdekin Update
  • St Benedict's Ecofest
• Actions & Activities: 
  
  • Art Auction: Sat 9 Oct 6pm
  • School Strike 4 Climate: Fri 15 Oct 9am
  • Green Drinks: Fri 15 Oct 6pm
  • Pitch Your Project
  • Townsville Waterway Forum
• Further Reading & Events
• Support Us

On Wednesday 29 September we held our backyard AGM, which was a great opportunity to catch up with our members and share some updates about our organisation and our work. We also tabled our Annual Report and elected a new Management Committee. 

This letter was written in response to The Hon Bob Katter MP's comments in this article, published in the Townsville Bulletin. We immediately responded with this open letter, from which some statements were published about a week later. You can read the printed article here. 

Dear Bob,

Contrary to your recent claims that North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) represents the people of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and that we’ve “never set foot off a pavement”, we have more in common than you think.

This month we saw the release of the latest IPCC report, which we hope has fuelled the fire in your belly as it has for us. If you haven't had the time (or the will) to read a summary of the report, check out this handy cheat sheet from the Climate Council.

The main takeaway from the report is that every action counts and the time to act is now! Why not display a Climate Action Now! sign to show your support? Read on for details.

August will also go down in history as the last month Queensland allowed single-use plastics, such as cutlery, stirrers and straws - yay! Even better - businesses and organisations with surplus stock can register with The Great Plastic Rescue so that they can be reprocessed, recycled and remanufactured into valuable products with longer useful life spans!

As usual, we've had an action-packed month and we appreciate your ongoing support. We hope you enjoy this edition of Paperbark and that it inspires you in some way!

In this edition:

• NQCC Updates:
  
  • Tree Advocacy Update: Talking up for our trees with TCC
  • Rivers Campaign Update: New footage of the beautiful Burdekin
• Actions & Activities: 
  • Share your support for Climate Action!
  • Postcard Art Opening: Friday 10 September
  • Green Drinks: Friday 17 September @ Grill'd
  • Annual General Meeting: Wednesday 29 Sept
• Have Your Say:
  • National Climate Resilience & Adaptation
  • Qld Renewable Energy Zones

Media Release: 23 August 2021

The Burdekin River belongs to all of us

North Queensland Conservation Council (NQCC) is on a mission to ensure that the Burdekin River can continue to support North Queenslanders for generations to come.