Beerburrum - back on track

Beerburrum’s getting back on track

By Greg Brown

Cr Baberowski with Beerburrum's Heather Cardaci

The rejection of the proposed quarry on the outskirts of Beerburrum at the recent meeting of Council has been widely applauded by Beerburrum locals and others concerned with the impacts such a major operation would have had on the village.

Once the proposal became public knowledge two years ago, the Beerburrum community rallied together and formed a working group, calling themselves Beerburrum Action Group.

Beerburrum once was a bustling township. But over the years, the town lost its prominence in the region. The town started to strain for an identity. The commercial area was struggling; the public spaces were looking worn; new residents had no real way to connect with the town and with each other. The viability of the town was under a cloud … something had to be done thought a few inspired locals.

In 2013, the community asked the newly elected Councillor for Division 1, Rick Baberowski, to help them revitalise Beerburrum.

Thus, began the ‘Beerburrum Revitalisation Group’. Public meetings were held and plans were drawn up on how the community could work together with local and state government.

The cooperative approach saw a ‘bakers dozen’ of thirteen ideas that everyone agreed to work on as part of the revitalisation plan.

Over the ensuing years, a number of those thirteen projects have been delivered, with some – such as the idea of a 1799 expedition trail from Pumicestone Passage to Beerburrum, following the epic journey of Matthew Flinders in 1799 – still in the early stages.

Cr Baberowski is delighted at what has been achieved by such a small community.

“By simply empowering locals to have a unified voice means so much to creating positive pathways for change.

“My role is just to take those community concerns and collective solutions and help navigate them through the bureaucratic processes, and to be a strong community voice when it is needed,” he said.

Since then, residents have moved and new faces have come to town. The revitalisation energy naturally tends to wane.

Then came the quarry announcement, and suddenly that energy returned, bringing with it new voices and ideas.

As the saying goes, from adversity comes strength … and Beerburrum has grown again into a strongly voiced community through the genesis of the Beerburrum Action Group.

The next stage for the group is to look at incorporation, ensuring that the positive energy continues and Beerburrum prospers.