The sponsoring club was the Toowong Lions Club and a member from that club, Brian Biggs, was to be what is known as our ‘Guiding Lion’. It was an interesting meeting as it all went very quickly and suddenly we were forming a Lions Club. Unbeknown to us, it was more an important occasion for the then District Governor as he and the District 201Q3 were in the race to obtain one of the highest honours a District Governor can achieve, that of Chartering the most new clubs in the world. D.G. Phil went on to gain this award with many new clubs formed in 201Q3 by 30th June that year. A great achievement. Ray Crompton was elected as the Charter President, with Dick Austin as the Charter Secretary. Some 21 men on that evening committed themselves to the initial club membership. The regular meeting dates and times were decided that night and have not changed to this day. We had to have what was known as a Charter Night, which was to be our official launch as a Club with most clubs in our district being invited, along with local dignitaries etc. This was set to be one of the first and most important tasks. The date was set for the 21st July and was to be held at the Albert Axon Hall at the University of Queensland.

Our first Board meeting was held at Presidents Ray’s place and many of the proposed ideas for the coming inaugural year were discussed including the arrangements for our Charter Night at the University. We decided that we would make it a good show in the form of a dinner dance and have a live rock band. Invitations to all clubs in our district were sent out and our own club members were encouraged to bring along their friends and family as guests. The big night came and what a night it was. Special guests were our local member, Bill Lickis and Sallyanne Atkinson and about 250 guests, mostly Lion members from other clubs all over Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. They gave us various Lions regalia such as our Tailtwisting lion, our Club banner and monetary donations. All Charter Lions from our Club were individually introduced on stage and the first Board of the club was inducted with Ray Crompton as our Charter President.  Our Charter plaque was presented which has listed on it all of the Charter Members. Charter President Ray gave his induction speech, highlighting the following five aims for our Club; -

• A club that will grow

• A financially sound club

• Have solid community projects

• A sound program of activity

• A family orientated club

To this day our club still abides by these five original aims. It was then time for dancing which we the new lions did well after midnight when all other guests had left. We decided to pay for an extra hour for the band to continue and that, along with many other extraordinary expenses started our club off slightly in the ‘red’. However other clubs in the District saw our plight and donations flowed in to rectify the problem. We the members soon realized that this Lions organization was something to belong to! Two of our original Charter Members, Keith Mathiesen and Lindsay Stewart are still members of this club. During the following months we got down to the serious business of being Lions with projects and fund raising beginning to take shape.

Our first major undertaking came from one of our members who came up with the idea of a Lions Park in Bellbowrie. After many months of negotiation with the BCC we were granted the land along the river at the end of Birkin Rd. Lions have vision and member Greg Loudon saw how we could turn a rough, overgrown piece of scrub land into a park to be enjoyed by all the community. For the next 10 years or so this park was continually maintained and mown by us, expanded and improved to what it is today.

The house had exhausted all the funds of the Leukemia Society and thus leaving them unable to make the house liveable. On inspection it was a bad buy as it had numerous problems, including borers. The idea was for us to convert the house to make it liveable for two families at a time. We initially thought $7500 would see this through and a few months work on various weekends by our members. Again with vision from one of our members, Jack Watson, he came up with an ambitious plan to raise the house up on new pillars, dig out underneath and enclose the entire lower half with bricks. This would double the accommodation capacity with up to five families staying at any one time. A new roof would be required and major repairs and replacements to be carried out. A total repaint and new fitout of furniture would finish the job. After some two years of work carried out by this club mostly on weekends and $50,000 the house was completed to our wishes. An interesting part of this project was the ability for it to be continually used by the parents of patients during our work. This particular project was through the dedication of 3 of our members at the time, Jack Watson, Jack Straughan and Ed Gibson; all who met through Lions and continue their friendship today.

Our actual first project ever undertaken was the building of a concrete Cricket pitch at the Pullenvale state school. This was completed in one weekend and as an 'official opening and christening' we had a cricket match against the Bremer River Lions Club with a BBQ lunch. This then became a yearly match for many years to follow.

During this first year many projects were undertaken including the following. We sponsored a young 14-year-old teenage boy from a low-income family at Charleville and gave him the opportunity to come to Brisbane for 2 weeks. In fact he had never been away from home in his life and it was the first time he had ever seen the sea or beach. A number of our members accommodated him and for 2 weeks probably saw more of Brisbane and surrounds than most other children have done at that age.  Our first year was when the SEQEB power strike was on and for about 5 days there was no power at all in the Bellbowrie district. Through the foresight of our President Ray Compton, he arranged a large freezer van to be stationed at the Bellbowrie shops and we the Lions went door knocking on every household collecting residents frozen food items and storing in the van until the power crisis was over. This particular project was very much appreciated by the locals and made the people of our suburbs very much aware of our new club. We began collecting old spectacles for sending to the people of India to be utilized in the hospitals over there. We commenced in September the Cancer Doorknock appeal, a day that we still continue to do on behalf of the Qld Cancer Society.  We sold some 66 dozen Christmas cakes that year and helped at the first Carols by Candlelight. A house numbering project where we placed residential house numbers on the kerb in front of each household was a fundraising project. Some of these reflective numbers can still be seen throughout Bellbowrie. We conducted a Hearing-screening clinic for pre-school children at the local kindergarten over one weekend with the help of a local doctor.

Our club made its first entry in the Lions Youth of the Year contest with Keith Mathiesen being the chairman of this project, which he did for a number of years to follow.

One particular unique but fun project we undertook was on Christmas eve that year with the help of a local resident (a barrister) who had a couple beautiful restored sulkies and trotting hacks. In the early evening we slowly cantered around the streets of Bellbowrie in the two sulky carts with two of our members dressed as Santas, one in each sulky, giving out lollies to the young kids. It was great with residents coming out into the street to wish us well and their kids receiving a little treat. Ray Crompton was one of the Santas and when the two carts met in their travels, Ray had a huge brass school bell which he had been ringing. At that point in our travels Ray decided to give a great shake of the bell; on the other cart was one of our Lions members who did not know what was about to strike him. His horse, being an ex racing trotter, immediately thought he was on the racetrack and took the bell as the last lap bell and bolted!! After doing one complete block of Bellbowrie in the fastest lap time ever, our poor Lion member returned well worn for the worse and quite physically shaken. The local barrister was not impressed either with our horsemanship although he did front up over the next few years to do the same thing again for the local children but bells were not allowed. On the social side we had a number of get togethers to make sure we all became acquainted with each other. A wine and cheese night was held at Keith and June's place, which was the first of many. We commenced our car picnics, had a snooker night and a number of BBQ's.

Our club adhered to the administration rules of Lions with extensive minutes of both Board and Dinner meetings taken.

In hindsight it was a busy year, especially for a new Lions Club, but we enjoyed the spirit of Lionism and we had a lot of fun.

We also had a few setbacks. We chartered with some 35 members and because of the rush to form a club, some members did not see Lions as their interest so during the year we lost about half of our charter members. We also gained almost as many and our final membership, which was quite stable by the end of the year, was 28 members. For a new Lions club this was considered very good.

Our charter 'Guiding Lion' Brian Biggs from the Toowong Lions was a tremendous help throughout the year. He attended every Dinner and Board meeting, every project we had and really became a part of our club. He was a true 'Guiding Lion' who without his help our club may have never survived.  Sadly, Brian suffered a heart attack in the April of our first year and passed away. It was a sudden shock to all of us to lose such a friend. In Memory of Brian our club instigated the 'Brian Biggs Memorial Jug' a water urn made of silver which each year is awarded by the President to an outstanding Lion in our club.

As the years rolled on into the 80's, we undertook numerous major and minor projects consisting of fundraising and community themes. During the 81/82 year with Lindsay Stewart at the President's helm, we fund raised some $4000-00 to donate to the Bellbowrie Sports and Recreation Association for them to commence pouring the concrete slab for what is now a magnificent Community and Sports centre.

A major fund raising and extremely popular project was the Kangaroo Gully Stampede. This mini type show day was held on private property owned by a local character called Bill Kaye on Kangaroo Gully Road. Bill was a real go-getter and had many friends in the recreational horse show area. We transformed this property for a whole weekend each year into a show ring with some 35 horse events and numerous other displays. Every imaginable display, food type, rides, stalls, parachute drops, competitions, bands, greasy pole, etc etc; we had it all. The idea was that any local school, club, sporting association could have a stall or other fund raising theme with that group keeping their funds raised.  The community came out in droves to support us; it was hard work, but gee we had fun!

Entertainment at Kangaroo Gully Stampede-1984

At one Stampede, we had the Army's Light Horse Regiment which, unbeknown to one of the Lions organisers who booked the army, did not consist of horses at all but huge army tanks. Anyway these four army troopers turned up this one Stampede with a couple of massive army personnel carriers which were capable of holding some 20 or so persons. They were to set up a static display along with some other army regalia. These army guys really started enjoying themselves and were convinced, by a few of us, that they should to show what these tanks are capable of doing in the vacant property next door. Well that got the army boys into the spirit of the day. With two of them in each carrier, they throttled around the paddock at full speed completely tearing up the muddy terrain and decimating the nice little creek that ran through the property. It was a spectacular display and the crowd just loved it.  After this they were then persuaded to give free rides across the same terrain, filling the inside of the personnel carriers with up to 20 or so kids, mums and dads for the rest of the afternoon. The only person who did not enjoy the action was the owner of the property. Whoops! The army boys finally got away at about 9 o'clock that night when we closed the bar. They deserved the free drinks! They had to get extra drivers from the barracks to come and drive the trucks back. Needless to say, they army declined to send their personnel carriers the next year. The Stampede continued for many years and later became known as the Moggill Show.

Over the years we have purchased and erected three of the bus shelters along Moggill Rd and the one on College Rd in Karana Downs. 

We financed and built the Kholo Community Centre in Svenson's Rd, again with the dedication of our member Jack Watson. This centre is used everyday for various uses including local parish church services each Sunday.

Another very worthwhile Australian Lions project was the purchasing of a Lions Hearing dog. This involved prepaying for a dog at the Lions Hearing Dog Centre in Adelaide to train in becoming alert to the various everyday sounds in life that a deaf person finds they cannot relate to, such as a telephone ring, a doorknock or bell, a kettle boiling and even a strange intruder in a house. The dog undergoes specific one on one training to alert its deaf owner of these sounds.

Winifred Cox was the very appreciative recipient of our dog and up to only 2 years ago was still living with Winifred in Caloundra, giving Winifred some 14 years of dedicated company.

One thing our club is remembered for is the Fairy Floss we made for many years at the various school fetes etc. Not only did we make the best floss but we were also the slowest. We seemed to always have a lineup of kids waiting for their fairy floss. This was made from our Lions van which was originally given to us as a written off Coke trailer. After many working bees and a complete stripping of the rusted wreck, we managed to produce the trailer in a refurbished state for road registration. Since then it has been used for many things and is still part of our equipment today. One particular incident was when we were asked to serve fairy floss at the Pullenvale school fete. Lions Jack Schmidt and Lindsay Stewart decided that year they needed a marketing edge to sell the floss so they decided to make blue floss rather than the standard pink. Unknown to them just how much blue food colouring would be required, they put in a little more than usual for the first test run, mainly to get a good deep rich blue colour. Their first customer, who had patiently waited for some time with her mother, was a sweet little girl about 6 years old in a beautiful all white lace party dress. About 15 minutes later both mother and daughter returned to show us how the little girl's dress had somehow turned blue all down the front. It was an extremely embarrassing situation with the mother almost ramming down our throats the remains and the stick that was left. We very quickly decided to go back to the pink recipe!

Of all the projects in the 80’s one that touched most Lions was the visit to Expo 88. We were approached by the headmaster of New Farm Primary School who spoke to us at one of our Dinner Meetings and related how his area had two types of social classes; one very poor and one rich. The poor in the area lived in the old workers cottages, many broken marriages and deserted wives with children. As Brisbane was in the hype of Expo, he saw that many of the children at the school would not have the opportunity, through poverty, to go to Expo 88. We as a club arranged with the Expo organisers for tickets for a day and accompanied about 14 children from the New Farm area. These kids had a great time and were just amazed at the enormity of the Expo. On picking up and dropping these children at their homes, we understood just what the headmaster had related to us at our Dinner Meeting. Each of our members had different experiences but in one instance when a 8 year old child was picked up the parents told our Lion member how appreciative they were for what we were doing and how it gave them the opportunity to go down to the Clubs at Tweed Heads to play the pokies all day, yet they could not afford to go to Expo! 

Other projects and assistance we gave included the following.

• Two canoes were donated to the Moggill Scouts

• Each year we donated funds to the Bellbowrie Safety House program

• Each Easter we had a major Easter Raffle selling ticket at the local shopping centres

• We assisted for a number of years in running the Friary Fare at Brookfield

• We purchased and erected a Bird Aviary at the War Veterans Home on Moggill Rd and started it off with about 6 budgies which grew to some 20 in the following years.

• We donated $3000-00 to the local Girl guides association so that they could build their hut in Bellbowrie.

• Many man hours of work was done at the Autistic School in Mt Crosby by way of repairs to the roof and guttering, gardening and mowing of the grounds, installing a hot water service as the children used to have to shower and wash themselves with cold water. We worked on a regular basis at the school for nearly 12 months.

• Every year we helped at the Carols by Candlelight.

• Collecting entrance fees and organising the parking at the annual Brookfield Show for a number of years raised monies.

• On the Lions projects, we entered candidates in the Lions Youth of the Year and Miss Personality Quest. We continue to sell Lions Christmas cakes and Lions Mints as fundraising and supporting Lions district projects. On a regular basis we support the various Lions undertakings such as Camp Duckadang, Lions Kidney and Medical Research Foundation, Lions Save Sight etc.

In 1979 our club when first chartered was the Lions Club of Moggill and in 1990, because of the growing numbers from the Karana Downs and Mt Crosby area, we changed our name to the Lions Club of Moggill-Mt Crosby after obtaining agreement from Lions International and adjacent clubs. Our area we now draw on is officially listed as “That part of the local government areas included within the outer boundaries of Division 1 of the (old) Moreton Shire generally east and north of the Brisbane River and the other boundaries of the Pullenvale ward of the Brisbane City Council generally west of the Gap and Moggill Creeks”. When the Karana-Mt Crosby area comes under the control of the BCC, these boundaries will have to be re-defined.

In June 1991, we saw the biggest event in the Lions International organisation when Brisbane hosted the 74th Lions International Convention. Some 60,000 Lions members came to Brisbane to attend the Convention, which lasted six days. A huge parade in the city was one of the highlights of the week with all the attendees marching under their respective country's flag. Many of our own members took part in the week either as volunteer help or attending the plenary sessions at the Boondall Entertainment Centre. Besides the Commonwealth Games in 1982 and the Expo 88, the Lions Convention was the third largest event ever to be held in Brisbane.

We assisted the Pony Riding for the disabled in various ways over the years; one was sponsoring a horse at their facility named ‘Bandit’. It was not until 1993 that we commenced with a major project for the PRDA by way of an idea from Ray Crompton in organising and running a weekend event which was to be called the Country Garden Expo with proceeds being shared between ourselves and the PRDA. The venue was the PRDA grounds, which lent itself as an ideal location for such an event. The weekend covered all aspects of gardening and landscaping with many displays and demonstration of products. For around $85-00 businesses could setup a display, stall or exhibit of their products and each year we had some 80 sites taken up. We had an excellent response from the local community who supported the event year after year.

During the recent years we have raised money for the purchase of a motor vehicle for the Blue Nurses in the Ipswich area. We contributed over a three years to the fitting out of an accommodation room at the Wesley Lodge; this is an accommodation facility for families of patients undergoing treatment at the Wesley Hospital.

We completely painted a number of rooms at Hannah’s house in Ipswich; an accommodation house for teenagers with family problems.

During the life of the club, we have held numerous social activities either as a fundraising event or just a social gathering. These have included our annual Progressive Dinner, which is still a yearly happening. In the early days we ran a fundraising night called the Moggill Ball. This was a formal evening with a sit down dinner served with live band and other entertainment. This was a little different from the normal Ball in that it was held in Lion Dave Gillery’s chook shed in Hawkesbury Rd. Each year we would completely clean out the large shed of the mess including the carpet snakes, and decorate it with formal entrance and full bar facilities to transform into a respectable ballroom complete with concrete floor. This evening, after a few years, became the highlight of the Moggill/Bellbowrie social scene and we had to limit the numbers to about 110 people. We were also raided once by the licensing police for not having a liquor license, but with a little persuasive talking by a few of our members, the police were convinced that this was just a private party and left us in peace. Another great evening was the Wine and Cheese nights held in Keith and June Mathiesen’s courtyard where we had a representative from the wine companies speak to us about their different wines. For many years we have been continuing the Car Rally, our Christmas party which is held at a different restaurant each year, the annual bush dance and our ‘Breakfasts in the Park’ which originally commenced at our Lions Park in Bellbowrie and now at the Karana Trails. From time to time, many other social outings have been held on a one-off basis such as theatre nights.

We have just related some of our social events that have taken place and in most instances these have been organised by our ‘Lady Lions’, the wives of our club members. Like most Lions clubs, part of our strength is in the support we receive from our ladies and this club has been no exception. Besides organising the social side, our ladies have been tremendous helpers in many of the club’s fund raising projects by coordinating their efforts behind the members of the club in the numerous activities. One particular project was the Country Garden Expo each year where all our ladies would be responsibility for the various food stalls for the weekend. This was one of the best fundraisers of the Garden Expo and greatly appreciated by us. In the early years the ladies ran a yearly ‘Steptoe Stall’, a Mothers Day Raffle and a monthly cake stall at the Bellbowrie shopping centre. They were instrumental in the fund raising effort we undertook one year for our entrant in the Miss Personality Quest. Our wives tend to see Lionism as not taking their husbands away from them, but in fact see Lionism as an opportunity to be with us, to broaden their activities and their circle of friends. 

In the year 2000 we had our first bike ride.  There are a number of the club members that enjoy cycling.  Faced with the need to come up with a major annual fundraising event a bike ride was agreed to and has existed ever since. The city of Ipswich holds a festival week around April each year.  Our club will be running a bike ride for the 5th time on the 17 of April next year.  The first and second years the ride was promoted as “The Ride with the Pride” and had 3 routes to suite various riders up to a distance of 50kms.  The year 2000 was pretty successful for a first go. 2001 not so good and 2003 even worse.  The problem was competition from the local Federal political member who, without any discussion with us, planned a Mall to Mall ride on the Sunday before our.  The crunch came in 2004 when we found out that the festival committee had agreed to the politicians ride being the day before ours.  We had to lift our game or give up.  The later not being a choice we changed our approach, gained major sponsorship from Boeing and marketed our ride strongly through the media and directly to prospective riders.  About 300 riders on the day which meant a $10000 donation to our major beneficiary Zoe’s Place.  We expect an equally tough time from our competition but will be giving the event our best shot in 2005.

Lion Keith Matheson (Melvin Jones Fellow) past away September 2001 & club founding member.

Lion Peter Smith passed away April 2004.

Both Keith and Peter are sadly missed by the club and are remembered for their service to the community.

The future for our club is the member’s responsibility and we must continue to be guided by our International organisation. We must uphold our Lions Ethics and Purposes, our commitment to our community and to Lionism. Strong leadership from our club’s Presidents and Board of Directors will be required to continue our good work into the new millennium. As with any club, membership retention and continued membership growth is extremely important. Members must commit themselves to be actively involved in the various projects we undertake. We, the members are responsible for the continual growth and success of our club. 

Lions Park Shelter Refurbishment

October 6th - October 11th 2014

Historical Lions Events & Projects

• Construction of a Shed at PRDA
• Painting of a House (inside) all yellow at Ipswich
• Donation to the Bellbowrie Mens Shed
• Organising a dance at the Bellbowrie Sports and Recreational Club for residents - approx. 1984
• Blue light dances for local teens at the Sports and Recreational Club
• Construction of the bridge at the top of Karana Downs Trail
• The rehabilitation of pushbikes for the the Pacific nations
• First Ipswich 100 Bike Ride was held in 1999
• First Moggill Marathon was held in 2020
• First Community Conversation was held in 2023