One person can make a difference. First picture is the Rochedale Biobasin in June 2021 totally overgrown with glycine, when I first started to care for this spot. After a month council came in and cut everything. Since then I’ve maintained it, weeded, planted and picked up rubbish. On average I’ve spent less than 30min per month. It’s now the only Biobasin thriving out of the 4 in the area. Have a happy Queensland Environment Day. And know that each person can make a positive difference with very little effort. Just a will to do so.

Tomorrow is Queensland Environment Day. I visited the Biobasin and spent an hour collecting one bag of rubbish, removing juvenile glycine vine and planted 3 trees, a Gossamer Wattle, Firey paperbark and a Lilly Pilly, all of which are native to Brisbane. So nice to see my previous tree plantings growing so big.

Had a great time learning about the UQSIC food forest. More to come! Thank you Jordan and Milan and Keshav

On Friday I caught up with Aditya and Milan from the UQ Sustainable Innovators Club to talk about the club joining Greenbrand.org. We had a wide ranging chat which included a visit to my old stomping ground at UQ, the Steele Building, to see their hydroponics project. Brought back some old, faint memories lol Thank you both for a great meeting.

Planted another 7 trees on Lamb island. 2 firey paperbarks, 3 Lillypillies, a gossamer wattle and a forest gum. The others are growing well! Showers over the past couple of weeks have made a difference 😊

Sat for one hour keeping watch over a small koala that’s been in the same tree for 4 days that looks to be sick. A trap has been set so when it comes down it can be taken to the wildlife hospital.

Attending the Rotary Tri District conference at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast. Handed out 10 trees so far. Looking forward to see the stories on where they get planted!

Made friends with Asi from Sun Engineering, learnt lots about PNG and the company. Looking forward to tasting some Highlands grown coffee!

I’m here at Blackbird’s Sunrise 2026 event. Hope to be inspired.

I’m attending the Rotary Tri Division conference at Royal Pines this weekend. I collected today 110 native seedlings that we are giving away at the conference. To receive a plant, just join the platform and commit to writing a story about planting the tree.

Spent 3 days up at Woodgate catching up with my dear friends from university days. Went on numerous walks and it so so nice to less weeds than I’d normally see around Brisbane. Still, I can see Glycine taking a foothold in the casurinas along the beach, and if nothing done they’ll totally smother the trees and it’ll cost thousands to remove. I pulled out a few by the roots (easy due to being in sand) and picked up a few items of plastic rubbish. Not enough to record work on here, but I felt much better doing a little to help, rather than walking by and do nothing.

I spent Sunday morning at the planting day site alongside Norman Creek in Greenslopes. I see this area every time I catch a bus into the city. The day was planned by the Norman Creek Catchment Coordinating Committee, and the youth volunteer group Co-Exist provided many of hands required to get the 720 trees into the ground in very quick time! I only planted the one tree, but it was whilst I chatted with Kurt, CEO of Co-Exist. The rest of the time I learned so much about the area, and issues to consider like flooding and contaminated soil, by speaking with Tom from N4C, Luke from Emu and Michael from Brisbane City Council. I also helped Stef pick up rubbish and I saved a paperbark from glycine vine. A productive and wonderful community day 😊

I visited the Rochedale biobasin for the first time in ages. I picked up 3 bags of rubbish. There were also 5 balls that had been washed into the bed via the drain. I left them at the gate in case someone wanted them for their dogs. I also pulled out a few glycine vines trying to make a comeback. But the overwhelming feeling I had was happiness that I had made a difference. The casuarinas I had planted 2 years ago were now over 6m tall! The first photo is the basin with the collected rubbish. The second is how it looked 5 years ago. If I had left it, it would look as desolate as the others are in this area. Even a small investment by one person can make a huge difference!

Last Sunday Tracey showed me some koalas she had seen in Grevillea Park. One of them appeared to be injured on the face and his eyes gunky. Tracey is part of the volunteer organisation Koala Rescue Brisbane South. They are an amazing and dedicated group of people who rescue injured koalas and educate the public. I had joined as a member and so was able to help. I spent 6 hours there. We couldn’t encourage him down from the tree so we set up a trap. He was caught at 2am! Taken to hospital, they think it was a car strike. Hopefully he recovers fully 🙏

Glycine vine was starting to overpower these footpath Lillypillies that I pass each day on the way to the bus. 30min of snipping and all was removed or cut, managed to pull a lot out by the roots as well. You can see the pile in the second photo.

Sadly, there’s always rubbish being generated that escapes into the environment. Just spent 30 min picking up 158 pieces (I can’t help it, have to count lol) to make my world a little cleaner and visually more appealing.

I’ve planted 20 seedlings over the past two weeks on my property on Lamb island. Really looking forward to them growing and providing habitat, food and joy to me and the local wildlife. All natives from in and around the Redlands area. A mixture of banksias, she-oaks, wattles, bottlebrush and eucalyptus.

Construction sites generate so much rubbish that flows/blows into the environment. I was picking up rubbish when I saw this huge piece of wrapping blowing down the street (see video). Probably counts as a bag’s worth by itself.

Looking forward to 2026! As 2025 starts to wind down many of Greenbrand's 'pieces of the puzzle' are coming together. For 5 years it's just been Soyun Yoon and I working to together in this startup. But I am fortunate to have made many wise and helpful friends over my 35 odd years of working in different fields. And so, building a team to commercialise and scale the platform is not only imperative; it's joyful. I had a great lunch with Dhru Lodhia and Prash Lodhia yesterday. Thanks fellas!