Positions vacant: Education Officer and Treasurer

Two important roles in the administration of the Farm are becoming vacant over the next couple of months, namely Treasurer in September and Education Officer at the end of June.  The Committee is inviting Expressions of Interest to fill these important roles.  Neither role requires you to attend the Farm on Wednesday mornings.  Below are brief summaries of the roles.

Education Officer - urgent

This is not a Committee position. 

Jean has been Beelarong’s Education Officer for many years, organising our various workshops, initially in conjunction with Brisbane City Council, and more recently workshops that are run by the Farm.  She has been ably supported by Celine who manages the TryBooking platform and advertises the workshops through our FaceBook page.   Jean is stepping down from this role on 30 June to take a well-earned holiday.  We urgently need someone to fill her shoes as soon as possible so that Jean can do a handover. 

The main tasks are:

  • Liaise with workshop presenters to prepare a calendar of workshops for the following 6 months.  We have been averaging 2 workshops per month, and in the past have excluded December and January.

  • In conjunction with workshop presenters, prepare a script for advertising the workshop.

  • Liaise with Celine who will post the calender onto our website, set up the Trybooking pages, and advertise the workshop approximately one month out.

  • Monitor the numbers of bookings to ensure the workshop is viable.

  • Generally, the presenter will organise their own support person, but the Education Officer may need to assist.

  • Prepare name labels for attendees and provide the presenter with a list of attendees

  • Let the Treasurer know when the workshop is completed, so that the Treasurer can request TryBooking to release the funds.

  • Time required:  Approximately 4 hours per workshop

Treasurer

Our Treasurer Silvana is taking her family on a working holiday overseas, tentatively departing in September.  This is a critical Committee role and we’d love someone to step forward and take it on.  You don’t need to be an accountant but some financial skills would be great.  The Treasurer has access to an accountant for assistance if required, particularly at the end of year.  Beelarong uses Xero as its bookkeeping platform.  It’s an online program and apparently very easy to use. 

The main tasks in this role are:

  • Enter all expenditure and income into Xero, and reconcile against bank statements monthly

  • Receive and reimburse legitimate Farm expenditure from members and the Committee

  • Collect and bank cash generated through Farmgate sales, sales of preserves, eggs etc and donations

  • Liaise with the Membership and Allotment Officer in regard to membership and allotment fees which are due 30 June each year.

  • Provide monthly reports to the Committee for their review and approval (generated from Xero) and upload onto the Farm’s Google Drive online document storage.

  • In consultation with the Committee, develop an annual budget

  • Monitor expenditure of grants received

  • Prepare accounts for the annual audit

  • Prepare accounts for the Annual General Meeting

  • Time required:  Approximately 4-5 hours per week

Please get in touch as soon as possible if you can help out: info@beelarong.org.au.

If you wish to learn more about either of these roles, please feel free to ask questions.  Jean and Silvana are more than happy to speak with you. 

The composting hub is open

The Beelarong composting hub has reopened after its summer break. You can bring your kitchen scraps to the farm and put them in the small wheelie bins on York Street.

Remember to add some brown material from the old bath tub. And please chop everything up small - no whole veggies or fruit. We don't take grass clippings or kitty litter.

Composting hub closing for the holidays

The Community Composting Hub at Beelarong will close on December 14 and open again on February 2, 2023. The holiday season closure is necessary as the composting team will be out of town. They also need a break from what is tough and smelly work.

Please do not bring kitchen scraps to the farm during the closure period. And do not take scraps down and dump them in the large compost bays, these are also having a rest.

Thank you for your support during the year!

AGM Notice 2021

The Annual General Meeting of Beelarong Community Farm Association Inc will be held on Sunday, October 3, 2021, corner York & Beverley Streets, Morningside QLD commencing at 3:00pm. Members are asked to arrive by 2.45pm to register their attendance.

Please find here:

  • Notice of AGM and Agenda

  • Proxy appointment form

  • Nomination form for election to Management Committee

  • Information on eligibility for election to a Management Committee

If you have any queries, please send an email to secretary@beelarong.org.au

Barn owls to blitz Beelarong rats

Rats and mice scurrying around Beelarong Community Farm had better watch out. Soon they will be dinner for barn owls which swoop from the night sky with deadly efficiency.

The birds of prey will have some swank new digs, thanks to Dave Tucker who built a sturdy nesting box from plywood and this week supervised its installation on top of a five-metre galvanised steel pole.

Dave, a Beelarong committee member with many skills, says the project was driven by the need to phase out the use of rat baits at the farm. “I got the idea when I went along to a presentation by Stefan Hattingh of Bulimba Creek Catchment Co-ordinating Committee (B4C),” he says

“I learnt about the hazards posed by second generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs). Predators such as hawks, owls, even carpet snakes can die if they eat rodents which have consumed these poisons.

Barn owl nesting boxes are a better alternative. They are used around the world as a natural means of controlling rats and mice in agriculture. An adult barn owl will eat seven to eight small mammals a day.”

Dave also uses cages to catch rats which are then humanely euthanised. He says that barn owls should show up at Beelarong soon. Or maybe boobook owls which have made their home in a nesting box at Northey Street City Farm.

A barn owl family can get a bit crowded with a nesting pair sharing their home with two or three batches of offspring. “There could be as many as eight to 12 owls in total,” says Dave.

The owl pad has a door for birds to come and go and another to allow the box to be cleaned.

Beelarong would like to thank Southside Fabrications of Capalaba which supplied the steel pole for the project.

We have won a SheShed!

We have some great news, we have won a SheShed cabin for Beelarong. These are really pretty little sheds that people use for sleepouts, cubby houses, offices, art studios, granny retreats and sewing rooms. They are made of Nordic Spruce and measure 3m x 3m. The kit comes with wall planks, roofing beams, roofing boards, shingle roofing tiles, interior flooring, a double-glazed window, and a double-glazed door.

We can thank Treasurer Sue for the fact that a Pressure Treated Star Cabin, valued at $7700, is on the way to Beelarong. She saw that the Sheshedz company was going to donate a cabin to the Australian community group which could best explain what they were about and how they use a shed. Sue filled out the entry form, penned some heartfelt words, and our entry was judged the best. Her idea is that the Beelarong cabin would be a Farm Shop to permanently store and sell our beautiful jams, marmalades, chutneys, and pickles, as well as the wonderful cards painted by Dianne. The shed could be styled in a lovely farm decor and placed in a position where our many visitors would be able to admire it.  

In her entry, Sue explains how Beelarong has become a garden oasis which provides a haven for people of all ages. It is a sanctuary for local families and seniors during the COVID crisis and membership has now hit a record 200 people, including 38 children.

It will be an exciting time at the farm as the shed is assembled and put in place. This will happen quickly as we need to have it up and open by January 31. We will need help from members with handyman skills.

New Committee

We have a new-look committee at Beelarong Community Farm. The following people were elected at the Annual General Meeting on Sunday 6th December 2020:

President: Josette Mathers

Vice-President: Deb Carden

Treasurer: Sue Tilden

Secretary: David Costello

Committee members: Meg Black, Sara Breckenridge, Paula Kennedy, David Tucker