Thank you Chair.
I rise to speak briefly about an event at Moggill in my Ward on Sunday where we honoured a local wildlife warrior and former Police officer, Irene Darlington.
Irene sadly passed away in February this year. At the time, a number of her friends reached out to me to see how we could honour her memory in our local community.
For more than 40 years, Irene cared for injured wildlife – particularly possums – without seeking any attention for her kindness. So collectively we agreed an appropriate way to do that would be to plant a tree in her honour in Council’s Westway Park.
We set two conditions – it had to be an Australian native but more importantly, it had to be “possum friendly” so we settled on a semi-mature Brush Box tree.
Chair, a little about Irene.
A local resident recently summed her up best:
“Every helpless little possum that required around the clock feeding and care, every little bird that fell out of the nest, every single animal that was in her care, she gave all her blood, sweat and tears to protect and rehabilitate with the utmost kindness and tender love”.
Just over a year ago, Irene was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer but she never let that stop her from passionately rescuing and rehabilitating every single little animal that needed help.
On Sunday, I was invited to say a few words at the tree planting service.
I didn’t know Irene but wish I had.
I remember that Saturday afternoon in February when I was contacted by a local resident telling me Irene’s story and that her days on earth were coming to an end.
She asked if I would send Irene a message of encouragement and thank her for all she had done as a wildlife carer. I said I would do it first thing on Monday, but something inside said do it now.
I’m so glad I did because I know my message was read to her before she passed the following day.
Chair, I know there are unsung heroes in all of our communities like Irene and its important we tell their stories and acknowledge their contribution to a better society.
It was pleasing to see the large number of local residents who turned out on honour Irene on Sunday.
I want to thank Irene’s many friends, but in particular Kerri and Leanna for helping organise this event, the Council officers who worked with me in securing permission and a location within Westaway for the tree and Kenmore horticulturalist, Trevor Dixon from AHI Gardens who secured the brush box tree and planted it for us.
I’ll finish by saying as I did on Sunday, I hope we have done Irene proud.
Thank you.