QCCC Brookfield

QCCC wins major Outdoor Education Award

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WINNER 2013 Award Logo
Queensland Conference and Camping Centres is the winner of the Queensland Outdoor Recreation Award for Excellence in Outdoor Instruction and Education.

In a major coup for the Sunshine Coast Hinterland a local Outdoor Education Centre has received the 2013 Queensland Outdoor Recreation Award for Excellence in Outdoor Instruction and Education. Queensland Conference and Camping Centres (QCCC) are this year’s recipients of the prestigious industry award recognising excellence in Outdoor Education programs.

QCCC’s largest Outdoor Education facility has been a vital part of the Mapleton community for more than thirty years. QCCC Mapleton is one of the busiest school camping venues in Queensland entertaining 30,000 guests annually. More than 20,000 of these are school students attending camps with more than 200 individual school groups. QCCC Mapleton is one of Mapleton’s largest employers with 50 staff and a significant attraction to the local area.

QCCC Director Andrew Grant believes a large part of QCCC’s success comes from locating its largest site in the natural beauty of the Blackall Range. “There’s no doubt we enjoy a natural advantage by bringing city kids into the mountains where they’re immersed in the stunning beauty of the Range. We must have one of the most stunning classrooms in Queensland”.

Throughout 2012 QCCC Mapleton created and built eight new activities specifically designed around the Australian Curriculum. This was a staff-driven effort with the initial “draft activities” significantly altered and enhanced through the participation of staff members primarily responsible for their delivery.

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Australian Curriculum Activities in 2013

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Environmental awareness school camp
QCCC Mapleton’s amazing Nature Display will feature heavily in a new activity on Environmental Awareness.

The Australian Curriculum is a major development in the Australian educational sector and QCCC have spent most of 2012 planning new and improved methods to assist schools to achieve the outcomes expected of the new regime. Now we’re hard at work building seven new activities based on the Australian Curriculum to be ready for Term One next year. 

Programs and activities developed by Mapleton’s Outdoor Education team will also make their way to QCCC’s two other sites at Brookfield and Tamborine, though with slight adaptations to make them appropriate to the client base at those Centres.

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A tale of two bridges

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A Tale of Two Bridges is a City Tour presenting a snapshot of Brisbane City, Australia. Two Bridges is a facilitated socio-political exploration of the heart of Queensland’s capital city.  It is a journey of discernment to help participants consider another view of the City. City Tour raises questions around how we understand power and lines of power, justice, mercy and compassion and beckons us to respond.  Christian groups can choose to have the tour based around the narrative of Mark’s Gospel.

 

EXLR8 your Leadership Camp at QCCC

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Leadership Camps Queensland Schools High Schools
Team initiatives are an essential part of the EXLR8 Leadership experience

The EXLR8 Leadership Development Program is an innovative and highly sought after Leadership Development program in Queensland schools. Queensland Conference and Camping Centres are proud to partner with EXLR8 to make their programs and format accessible to schools in South East Queensland.

Exlr8  is more than a tick and flick approach to leadership development that presents the technicalities of becoming a leader, or employing a seminar based methodology that simply acknowledges and espouses the processes and procedures of how leadership works, exlr8 focuses on developing the priority and principles of leadership within a student leader. 

Utilising an intrinsic action/reflection approach is purposely designed to help students develop character based decision making capacity through helping them reconstruct their personal story and growing in their understanding of who they are as people and helping them to understand how they influence others around them.

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Who we are

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2011 is shaping up as an exciting one for Queensland Conference and Camping.  The year is off to a flying start with record guest numbers through February.  Some of the new initiatives we’ve been working on for several years are being launched and are quickly growing. 

 And we’ve started this year serving our new vision and mission statements.

 

Vision statement: 

 As a ministry of Queensland Baptists, QCCC exists to create life-changing experiences through excellence in hospitality, service and teaching.   

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QCCC’s R1202 pilot

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QCCC is piloting now a new concept we hope will become the backbone theme of our programs from 2012 onwards, across our three camp sites at Mapleton, Tamborine and Brookfield (Brisbane). The working title for the concept is “R1202“, a reference to the biblical Romans 12:02:

“Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within.”

Also known as “The Hand” we believe the R1202 theme will enable us to partner with visiting groups to reflect on the key attributes and values required for a successful life.

As it is developed we will make it a flexible tool that can fit the objectives and outcomes of each group who visits us. We will also develop resources so that the lessons learned from R1202 on camp can last long after it concludes.

R1202 will become the major tool used by QCCC in our teaching and service to clients.  Our staff have identified approximately 70 object lessons that can be drawn from R1202 using colours, fingers and other concepts.

QCCC and the Queensland floods

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The QCCC Mapleton swinging bridge - high above the floods of 11 January 2011

With South East Queensland devastated by heavy rainfall and flooding in recent days we stand in solidarity with the rest of our State and echo the sentiments of our Premier, Anna Bligh, that we will join with our fellow Queenslanders to overcome this adversity. 

We are relieved to say that this extreme weather event has had a minimal impact on our three sites.  In Brisbane QCCC Brookfield is located significantly higher than the flood line.  For a few hours in the heaviest of rain on Tuesday 11th the main road into QCCC Brookfield, Gold Creek Road, was cut by a creek in spate but it quickly subsided.  QCCC Brookfield is accessible even now as flooding rages down the Brisbane River and has suffered no adverse effects.

Some of the heaviest rain fell over the Sunshine Coast Hinterland where QCCC Mapleton is situated.  However Mapleton is high on the Blackall Range and apart from a few hours where water rose above the front gate, the rain water quickly sloughed away down the many creeks that run off the high ground.  At all times the Centre was fully accessible from the Mapleton Town Centre and apart from a few quickly dealt with landslips the roads to and along the Blackall Range remained open.  The waterfall at QCCC Mapleton was a wonderful sight when in full and powerful flow.

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Things that matter to us: Hospitality

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A series on the guiding principles of QCCC’s camping philosophy.

Fully catered camping in Queensland
Excellence in food is an important part of the QCCC service

Food is the basic staple of human survival but it’s so much more than that.  According to history, medieval priests “ministered” to travelers by providing shelter from the cold and nourishment in the form of hot soup.  Eventually this soup became known as ‘Minestrone’, from the Latin word for service, because this kindness was offered in Christ’s name as a service or ministry to needy travelers. 

“Ministry” has traditionally been (a) any service to people (b) done in Christ’s name (c) at a sacrifice – the soup was free to travelers. (J. Gibson – Ministry and Worship).

QCCC exists to serve – to “minister” to individuals & groups – through hospitality & service.  When used in the Bible this implies responsibilities well beyond the provision of food and lodging; i.e. courtesy, care and attention to other needs.

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2010: A good year!

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As the curtain closes on 2010 it’s a good time to reflect on a record year of camping and conferencing for QCCC.

QCCC Expeditions are hotting up, driven by our provision of the Duke of Edinburgh Award.

Here’s a little of what our great team has managed to achieve this year:

  • Hosted over 500 individual groups across our three sites, that’s an average of 10 groups each week using our facilities.
  • Provided a quality accommodation experience to more than 35,000 people, an average of 700 people each week staying with us.
  • Served more than 200,000 meals. We’re convinced quality hospitality is a vital part of any successful camping and conferencing program.
  • Facilitated more than ten outdoor education instructors as they provided programs for more than 200 schools through the year.
  • Made great strides in building partnerships with like-minded organisations, the fruits of which will start to be seen in 2011 as we roll out new services and programs.
  • Developed a pilot theme for all of our Centres that will add significant value to the programs and outcomes of groups using our facilities (watch this space).
  • Further developed our Expeditions program and taken several groups through their Duke of Edinburgh Award.
  • Kicked off our training program for future staff – providing a Certificate III in Outdoor Education.
  • Had an awful lot of fun in the process!