GTB Bows Out … For Now

October 18, 2015

After four years of attempts to get a sustainable horticulture group operating in the region, Growing The Burnett (GTB) has officially decided to call it a day … at least for now.

At a relaxed barbecue dinner held in Nanango last week, GTB founder Brian Jarvis bid a formal farewell to the group and its members but said he had no regrets.

While he remained committed to GTB’s ideas of encouraging sustainable small farming and creating new agricultural jobs centred around it, he could no longer afford to continue devoting himself to the project full-time.

“I’m 65 and while my passion for a sustainable future has not waned, time is not my friend,” Brian said.

Soon after the group was founded in 2011, it secured a lease on a farm at Memerambi.

This allowed it to begin small-scale crop farming and offer traineeships in horticulture to interested local residents.

The group also set up the Thursday Farmer’s Markets in Kingaroy to sell their fresh produce, as well as give other local small farmers an outlet for their own produce.

However, the group’s growth was seriously derailed in August last year when its lease on the Memerambi Farm wasn’t renewed.

GTB had hoped to establish a sustainability centre in the region which would demonstrate alternative farming and energy practices as the next step in its evolution, but Brian said he felt overwhelmed by the work that would be required to make the project happen.

GTB president Tony Slade thanked Brian for the “enormous effort” he’d put into the project since 2011, along with founding members Damien O’Sullivan and GTB secretary Rosemary Pratt.

He also thanked the Burnett Mary Regional Group, BIEDO and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, who had backed GTB’s efforts with expertise, equipment and grants to help it run two successful horticultural training programs.

Mr Slade said following Brian’s announcement he would be withdrawing from the group in late August, no one had stepped forward to take his place.

This being so, the non-profit organisation has decided to wind up and is now in the process of distributing its “barn full” of assets to other like-minded community organisations.

However, he believed Growing The Burnett would probably re-emerge at some point in the foreseeable future, though probably be in a different form.

He didn’t think any other members had any regrets for the time and effort they’d put into the organisation, either.

Instead, he thought two very positive outcomes GTB had achieved over the past four years was to raise awareness about the importance of sustainable farming practices, and to bring together like-minded people in the region to carry that message forward.

Brian said running a not-for-profit community organisation posed challenges a private sector business wouldn’t face, and creating a private company was one option that might be considered in the future.

For his own part, he had received several job offers from similar-minded organisations since announcing his intention to withdraw from GTB, but for the moment intended to spend the next few months considering his options.

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