First Aid Volunteers Celebrate Four Years

Moreton Bay First Aid Volunteers (MBFAV) hosted their fourth birthday party on 6 December 2022 beginning in the late 1800s, was caused by the fur trade. Before that time, Australia was home to an estimated ten million koalas.

Between 1888 and 1927, over eight million koalas were slaughtered for their soft fur.

Moreton Bay Regional Council (MBRC) has beefed up environmental protections in 2022. They have implemented a habitat protection and restoration scheme designed to improve the amount and quality of koala habitat across the region. A part of this scheme is a land buyback program, funded to the tune of $2.9m per year. Council also has three dedicated koala nature refuges covering 282 hectares.

In addition, Council offsets any tree loss incurred during the development of new estates, planting three koala trees for every tree removed.

Recently, the MBRC Mayor Peter Flannery announced an intention for the Council to limit the urban footprint to no more than 25 per cent of the region’s total land area.

Despite these efforts, koala lovers have good reason to be apprehensive about the future of the now-endangered marsupial.

IN recent years, MBFAV has been very creative in gaining funding and grants to help the group acquire their much-needed equipment and was very fortunate to receive a Gambling Community Benefit Grant to purchase a second-hand ex-ambulance which has been converted into a Mobile First Aid Post that can be taken to events.

With a membership of 20+ volunteers, MBFAV has been reaching many milestones and hope to keep growing bigger, stronger and more skillful.

“We have to thank Laurie Smith and his team at Storage King Burpengary. Without their support and that of many other local businesses our group would not be here today.” said MBFAV President, Simon Robson.

As a registered charity and not-for-profit organisation, all monies raised by the group go to fund equipment and training of their volunteers.

MBFAV hope to one day become an independent training organisation – big hopes and dreams for such a young group.