Four Chambers Flat neighbours are on a mission to protect Norris Creek, which has become over-run with weeds and flood-debris.
And Logan City Council has decided to give them a helping hand.
Norris Creek runs through the properties of Helen and Lindsay David, Harriet Aitken, and Sandra Day, all of whom have been trying to manage and maintain the creek by themselves.
“Fortunately, all four of us think quite similarly about the environment and feel that it is our responsibility to protect it,” Mrs David said.
“When I noticed that this section of bushland that ran through each of our properties has important environmental value, I decided that we needed to get together and do something about it.”
And so they did, but according to Ms David, after two years of clearing and maintainance it became too difficult to do it alone.
“We decided to apply for a grant so we could get contractors to do the initial clearing because there are quite steep gullies down the back,” she said.
“It’s quite difficult for us poor-old retired people to clamber up and down.”
The EnviroGrant funding was handed out to 14 landholders in Logan to support their on-ground ecosystem restoration projects.
In the case of Mr and Mrs David, Ms Aitken and Ms Day, the $18,000 funding will enable them to employ the contractors required to restore the creek.
“When the floods come down, and of course they recede, they leave all sorts of crap behind,” Ms Day said.
“So there’s fridges, freezers, eskies, broken windows and all sorts down there.”
She said the creek was also inundated with every weed imaginable, so she and her neighbours were grateful to receive the grant.
“We need to protect the natural spaces that we have in Logan, and the EnviroGrants will go a long way in helping us to do that.”
Chambers Flat’s local councillor Scott Bannan said improving the health of Norris Creek would be a great outcome for the entire local community.
“We are very lucky to have so many committed eco-conscious residents in our division who know that our environment is worth protecting,” Cr Bannan said.
“The efforts of people like Helen, Lindsay, Harriet and Sandra doesn’t go unnoticed and their impact will reach well beyond their own backyards.”
Other EnviroGrant recipients are Logan Village State School, St Matthews Catholic Primary School, and Calbary Christian College, which received $2000 each in the environmental education category,.
Funding was also awarded to the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, which received nearly $20,000 across five categories, as well as fifteen individual wildlife carers for their work caring for and rehabilitating Logan’s wildlife.
