FOR more than 30 years Jeanette Lockey has been on the frontline fighting against inappropriate developments in the Tamborine Mountain region.
She has represented the community 20 times in court arguing against projects that residents had voiced their concerns about.
“Even though we sometimes lost, I was always proud to be representing a concerned community and having our objections heard,” Jeanette said.
Despite just turning 88 Jeanette continues to fight on for Tamborine Mountain to ensure that any future developments don’t detract from the beauty of the region.
Her abounding passion and energy was recently recognised in the King’s Birthday Awards where she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the General Division.
While she deemed it a great honour, she said she shared the OAM with the members of the local community who had joined her in the fight for the right type of development for the region.
Jeanette first joined the Tamborine Mountain Progress Association in the early 1990’s and served as its president from 2005 through to last year when it was dissolved to form a new district preservation association.
“Locals continue to send emails and call me when they are concerned about future projects and after all these years I certainly have the knowledge to advise them,” she said.
“It’s a great honour to now be able to sign my name with an OAM behind it, but my real reward has been to help protect this area’s natural beauty and semi-rural style.”
Jeanette hasn’t given up her post as a guardian for the district she has called home for more than four decades and is now heavily involved in the new preservation association.
Her passion is understandable because it was her love of the bush and the pristine nature of Tamborine Mountain that first attracted her to move to the area in the early 80’s.
Since that time her fight to see the mountain develop in keeping with its heritage has long been acknowledged by local residents. Now it has been recognised nationally as she joins a select group who have an OAM in their cabinet.
