Brisbane Bunya Lions Club President John Whitlock said while real Christmas trees were more popular than ever, sourcing them could be a challenge. 

“We’ve been undertaking this fundraising initiative for the past 25 years,” Mr Whitlock said. 

“We’ve been fortunate in the past with reaching out to people we know in the area who have large properties with the trees we need.

“But in the past few years, obtaining decent number of good Christmas trees to sell has become more difficult.”

Mr Whitlock said while doing some Christmas tree reconnaissance in the Moreton Bay area, one of his members noticed some slash pines growing in an area managed by Seqwater.

“We reached out to Seqwater to see if we might be able to cut some of the pines down for our fundraising efforts and were pleased to hear that they were happy to help,” Mr Whitlock said. 

“The support has been gratefully appreciated, particularly since COVID-19 restrictions severely impacted our fundraising efforts this year. 

“Every dollar we raise goes back into the community.”

Seqwater Catchment and Dams Operations Supervisor Matthew Hegarty said Seqwater had donated more than 50 slash pines to the Lions Club.  

“To assist the Lions volunteers our Seqwater team took care of cutting down the pines and delivered them this week,” Mr Hegarty said. 

“This was another great opportunity for Seqwater to give something back to the community and support local charitable groups like Lions.”

Christmas trees will be on sale along with Christmas cakes at Teralba Park in Everton Park this Saturday (12 December) from 8am to 3.30pm.