LONG-TIME VOLUNTEERS SHARE THEIR BUTTERFLY JOURNEYS

We have a passionate group of volunteers who provide their valuable support looking after our caterpillars and butterflies, propagating plants, greeting visitors and many more behind-the-scenes roles.

We shine the spotlight on six volunteers who have been involved with the Butterfly House since the early days when Ray Archer first set up a butterfly plant nursery at his Banksia Beach home in 2010 from a Gatton farm which now houses our butterflies. I then tackled the task of laying a brick retaining wall, followed by numerous other trenching, plumbing and concreting tasks. and sometimes from across the sea.

My neighbour told me about the first Butterfly House in Banksia Beach in November 2010. I was retired and wanted something to do for the environment. This seemed a good opportunity, so I joined the small group of volunteers.

I started with potting plants and Fred Clark, one of our founding volunteers, taught me a lot. When we opened the current Butterfly House on First Ave I volunteered as a gardener. I now help organise social get-togethers for our volunteers with my friends Roxanne and Lyn.

In 2017 I wrote database software to track volunteers and accounts, including a point of sale ticketing system used for the first time when the Butterfly House opened on 21 June. After applying for the COVID grants that funded the upgraded vinyl floor in the breeding lab and the solar power installation I stepped back from my role as secretary/treasurer in 2021, and have been the president since Ray’s retirement in 2022.

I have made some great friends in the Butterfly House. We still keep in contact and support Ray’s dream.

In May 2016 I answered a letterbox drop looking for volunteers to help build a butterfly house on First Avenue.

My first task was helping to retrieve an enclosure frame

In 2012 I received a flyer in the mailbox inviting people to learn how to look after the butterflies at Ray’s home. On my first day I learned how to gather caterpillar eggs and put them in a petri dish. I was amazed at how many tiny eggs would be on the leaves of one plant. You couldn’t see them until you turned the leaf over. I loved learning how different breeds of caterpillars ate different types of leaves, and watching them turn into butterflies.

I now volunteer at the ticket office and enjoy meeting people from all around Queensland and Australia, tips to the volunteers here, and supply eggs, caterpillars or plants to the Butterfly House to make sure there are plenty of butterflies for visitors to enjoy. I love seeing people’s reactions when they see the butterflies here. Kids especially get a lot of enjoyment out of it, and it's just good to see that people really like butterflies.

About 10 years ago I heard of a fellow who was breeding butterflies from his Banksia Beach home. My kids were little, so we went for a walk and met Ray and Delphine and the world of butterfly breeding. We started helping by cleaning the butterfly enclosures and feeding the caterpillars. I was so impressed by these amazing butterflies that I started a Facebook page to encourage more people to get involved. We also foot-delivered thousands of flyers to mailboxes, then formed a committee for the Bribie Butterfly Volunteers which resulted in the opening of the existing Butterfly House on First Ave.