Co-op News From
"Maple Street Co-op News", December 2007/January 2008

Scorpios Celebrate Their Watery Source
By Ruth Parnell, Co-op member

Scorpios made a stylish splash on their special evening at The UpFront Club on Thursday 15 November. The water theme (after all, Scorpio is a water sign) was reflected in the menu and table decorations, each table named after a local waterway. Presented by the Maleny Surf Club (well, with climate change the way it's going, waves may be lapping the Range in the future!), it was compered by yours truly.

Guest speaker was Maleny-based environmental scientist (as well as Scorpio and Co-op member) Dr Peter Oliver. He began by thanking the local traditional owners, the Gubbi Gubbi, then shared stories of his experiences in catchment care and community engagement, and sparked lively audience participation for his 'Dugong Rock' song.

Peter spoke of his role in the birth of Waterwatch in Maleny in 1987, and how he brought together landcare and community groups in the early 1990s to learn about Mary River catchment issues. He told of his time in 1997 as catchment management coordinator for Pumicestone Passage in combatting outbreaks of fireweed, Lyngbya majuscula, or 'smartarse weed' as it's known by the local Aborigines. This algal slime was giving fishermen nasty rashes and killing the already-declining dugong population. He also touched on his current work in collaborative water planning in far north Queensland.

Peter left us with a stirring rendition of his song 'From the Range to the Sea', encouraging us to appreciate our waterways as "the arteries of the land" and to become part of the solution in managing them wisely.

UpFront Club music coordinator Danny 'Consultant of Swing' Rose on guitar and vocals, backed by Mark Righelle on trumpet, performed cool swing numbers. Danny also told of his role in the FABS group in the early 1990s that saved Maleny and Obi Obi Creek from a cement batching plant: he became the group's 'nominal respondent' based on his meagre assets of a set of guitar strings! Dr Peter Oliver was also intrinsic to the success of this three-year campaign.

A competition to list as many water-related songs as possible was won by the noisy Gardners Falls table (including Carmel Givens, Rid Kennedy, Annie Philp, Lynne Frederiksen and Mick Devlin), who came up with over 100 song titles.

Team Scorpio members Mary Meadows, Anne Buff and Christina Bromet produced the water-themed table decorations, Steve Swayne designed the poster and compiled water-related songs for the MP3 player, and I devised the 'turf 'n' surf' menu. Everyone appeared to have a whale of a time!

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", December 2007/January 2008; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.co-op@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]