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This morning at our launch at the home of Gladfield our CEO, Phil McCullough and General Manager, Andy Greening got to take a flight over the Treehenge farm. The images they captured give an insight into the beauty of this valley so we thought we’d share....

Our Queensland Blue Kookaburra found his way home this morning as we headed to the home of Treehenge - Gladfield. Even the weather was celebrating with us, the heavy morning frost rose to give way to a glorious warm winters morning. It was fantastic to see the locals turn up to get involved in the celebrations. The Condamine Alliance team were on hand to talk to people about the project and of course cook the BBQ breakfast!
Maryvale State School principle Eric Polis and his students spent the morning at the farm with all the students getting a ride up in the tethered balloon. Condamine Alliance CEO, Phil McCullough also took this opportunity to announce that the school was also the most recent school to join the Condamine Crusader project which they were thrilled about!

Well today was always going to be a big one being in our local area of Toowoomba but it was great to see the turnout of locals who wanted to support the Treehenge project at iconic Queens Park in the heart of Toowoomba. Toowoomba certainly put on its best winter weather with temperatures well in the negatives. The Rotary Club of Toowoomba East were first to arrive onsite to set up the yummy sausage sizzle IN THE DARK – now that is dedication guys! CFM’s Morning Crew supported this morning events will lots of shout outs throughout the morning - but we couldn’t drag them across the road in the chilly weather.
The balloon crew made the most of the early morning start and put on a great ‘burn off’ show blasting the burning as the morning light came up. Although we were in the amphitheatre the winds was still blowing. With the help of a large crowd and most of the Condamine Alliance team we managed to get our balloon up – just long enough for Mayor Peter Taylor to have a ride up.

What an exciting day for Treehenge! Today we officially launched with a media launch at Southbank in Brisbane. Even the high winds, which meant we couldn’t get our Kookaburra Balloon up, couldn’t deflate our spirits. Over a year of planning has gone into bring the concept of Treehenge into a reality. The media throughout Queensland was abuzz with the news – print, radio, TV and online news stories come flooding in. Almost 100 students from UQ helped get the message out when they took to the Brisbane streets armed with our brochures.

QUEENSLAND’S ‘TREEHENGE’ TO BE SEEN FROM SPACE

Queensland will soon have a sustainability project so large it will join the pyramids of Giza as one of the only manmade objects visible from the International Space Station.

Called ‘Treehenge’, the project will see thousands of massive trees lined up to form a unique design in the Condamine River Basin and lead to several other plantations of its type across the country.

Treehenge is an initiative by the not-for-profit Condamine Alliance and it will not only help revive the land and endangered animal populations in one of the nation’s major food bowls but also be a unique place of commemoration.

Today we headed east to the Gold Coast to launch from Broadwater Parklands at Southport. The site was spectacular on the waterfront and adjacent to the Gold Coast Highway. Now into our third day the team is becoming very able with the set up and pull down processes of a hot air balloon. The coastal breezes played havoc with our balloon - though we did manage a quick, and very exhilarating, ride for Gold Coast Mayor Ron Clarke who joined us for the morning.

For our second day on the road we headed to Limestone Park in Ipswich. The chill of winter was certainly in the air today with the temperature below zero when we first arrived. Today we were kindly assisted by local balloon company Floating Images and the local SES in setting up our balloon. The winds were kind and we soon had our Kookaburra friend flying high. A few lucky locals also got to join in on the fun with a tethered balloon ride before the winds picked up again. A huge thanks to the Queensland Time for joining us – I am not sure the reporters realised that when they took the story on they would actually end up flying above Ipswich. Mayor Paul Pisasale joined us to check out what was happening and was keen to get involved in the project. We will are hoping to get back to Ipswich very soon but more on that later. An Ipswich Times journalist is the first to get...

Today was the first day of the Treehenge ‘roadshow’ throughout south east Queensland. The team and our giant Queensland Blue Kookaburra hot air balloon were in Raby Bay Boulevard Park in Cleveland. An early morning start saw us meet in the park at 6am with our eyes on the sky and hopes of fine weather.
A great crowd of locals joined us in the park and the team from Volunteer Marine Rescue stepping in to help inflate our hot air balloon. The winds off the ocean proved too strong and unfortunately the Kookaburra was only in the air for about half an hour.
Mayor for Redlands City Council Melva Hobson joined us and whilst she might have missed out on a ride was excited to be a part of the project.