The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (GC2018) has delivered a lot of ‘firsts’ for the Gold Coast. Now the real challenge is how we, as a community, adopt its legacy in areas such as environmental behavioural change. Katie Barton-Harvey, Sustainability Marketing Manager for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Corporation (GOLDOC), will outline the major ‘behind the scenes’ work that’s been done to ensure the Games’ success continues after the closing ceremony. She’s guest speaker at Gecko Talks at Currumbin RSL later this month and will outline some of the work done over the past four years or more to ensure the success of GC2018 and that there’s a continuing positive legacy for our local economy, environment and society.

Over 200 people braved the threat of storm cells on the evening of Thursday 26th to attend the public meeting, which was called to take action on the unethical, unaccountable and non-transparent behaviour of the current Gold Coast City Council. Those present heard from 16 speakers representing community groups from one end of the Gold Coast to the other.

For years community organisations have been calling for more accountability of Councillors in their dealings with developer applications, takeover of public open space, manipulation of the City Plan reports with large areas blacked out, secret meetings and conflict of interest voting in Council. These concerns and others were documented in the All That Glitters 4 Corners Report in September and confirmed in the recently released Crime and Corruption Commission’s Belcarra report on investigations into offenses under the Local Government Act and the Local Government Electoral Act.

All our Programs are for 5-9 year olds,  Start at 9am and finish at 11am; Cost $5 per child. Activities cover: Bees, Butterflies, Tidal Pools, Megabats, Lizards, Birds, Fish and the ever popular Discovery Trail. See details here:

The public community meeting which was cancelled has been rescheduled for next Thursday 26th October in Albert Waterways Hall. The public meeting calls for urgent reforms in Gold Coast Council to ensure much improved transparency, accountability,ethics and equity following the revelations on 4 Corners program All that Glitters and the conclusions of the Crime and Corruption Commission Belcarra Report. The issues that concern community members are many and include – The undue influence of the development industry, the trashing of our new city plan without regard to community amenity, Using our parklands as some sort of land bank for developers, Failure to provide additional public open space for our growing population and to protect our wildlife Failure of many Councillors to represent their constituents properly. The impact of light rail on koala habitat and community amenity The failure to protect dwindling koala populations from land-clearing Secret meetings and large blacked out sections of reports paid for by ratepayers Failure to leave the chamber for votes on matters declared a conflict of interest

Internationally-known film maker Lin Sutherland will be sharing her story with us and a sneak preview of her next series Endangered (Channel 9) at Gecko Talks at Currumbin RSL later this month.

This temporary installation in Winders park next to Gecko House was an artistic expression of sea level rise and how our grandchildren will experience rising tides by the end of this century. Held on the banks of the beautiful Currumbin Creek during the SWELL Sculpture Festival, 8th to 17th September 2017.

When Kevin Tracy talks about bees, it’s not just about how to produce raw unprocessed honey. He believes they also have much to teach us as humans—and can aid our psychological and physical health. ‘Bees are intriguing animals,’ he says. ‘Hives are very complex and act as a super organism where it’s never about the individual, but about the colony. We’d be a more peaceful world if we learnt from them.’

Paul Revie is a zoologist and ecologist currently working with Seaworld’s penguins while undertaking a number of research projects in southeast Queensland. Gecko’s online magazine Hills to Headlands, is also lucky to have Paul as a regular article contributor. Paul’s popular and informative articles also include his up close and personal photographic encounters with wildlife, As his passion is small carnivorous mammals, notably the spotted-tailed quoll, it was no surprise that his Hills to Headlands’ article ‘Quolls of the Gold Coast Hinterland, Our Last Carnivores’ was soon picked up by local mainstream media, further leading to the activation of a Facebook page called QuollSA (Quoll Society of Australia); to help raise awareness and funds for the dying species in the Gold Coast Hinterland and surrounding areas. In other Hills to Headland’s articles, Paul has introduced readers to the fascinating world of penguins; our feathered fishermen the ospreys; the amazing frogs of the Coastal Wallum, and more recently our largest migrating locals, the humpback whales. After dreaming of visiting the Galapagos for much of his life, Paul finally had the opportunity to travel there earlier this year as part of a small group of environmentalists. His talk will discuss how the special flora and fauna of the Galapagos have evolved, and convey his first-hand impressions of the conservation issues facing these remarkable islands.

Dr Tuszynska will talk about fungi’s vital impact on the environment, and humans, covering areas from transforming pollutants such as pesticides and petrochemicals, to fungi creating soils and nourishing all life forms by munching on rocks and wood, to how universities and companies are actually growing myco-plastics, clothing, furniture and buildings with fungi.