Community of Christ

The Community of Christ have been involved in the Springbrook Rescue project since 2007, when the Queensland Government bought their accommodation centre, “Koonjewarre”, as a vital part of restoring ecological integrity in the high altitude catchments of Springbrook. ARCS purchased the accommodation business as a means of raising the necessary funding to support the Springbrook Rescue project. Peter Lawson, Queensland manager of the Community of Christ at the time, and his wife Joy, provided invaluable guidance and assistance in the early days of running the business. Our history with Peter goes back a long way. Peter, in his former life worked for the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and was project manager when ARCS was commissioned to write the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage nomination in 1992 (then called CERRA for Central Eastern Rainforests Reserves of Australia) for the Australian, New South Wales and Queensland governments. Because of this history, Peter has been a vital supporter of our efforts to protect and restore these World Heritage rainforests. Together, the Community of Christ members have tackled a wide range of restoration activities, such as chain sawing down large exotic trees, mulching these down with a chipper, brushcutting, and hand pulling a wide range of weeds including Aristea ecklonii. The size of their team relates to the task in focus — chainsawing exotic trees, chipping of chain-sawed debris, lopping, brushcutting, raking, culling flower or seed heads of Aristea, or digging out Aristea plants.

We always enjoy working with the Community of Christ. They work with such good humor and camaraderie. Listening to their tales of travels to exotic locations around the world, particularly in South America and South Africa is always interesting. They love to sing, one breaking suddenly into song, others joining in in perfect harmony, changing seamlessly in a medley of popular songs.