It's time to throw the gates open!

After months of planning, negotiations and prepping, we are excited to finally throw the gates open to The Garden Bar at The Clubhouse Moorooka with a big weekend of family-friendly, socially-distanced celebrations on the greens.

On Friday 11 February from 4pm, you and your neighbours are invited to a very special birthday party. Join Moorooka's local Elder Uncle Desmond Sandy, Head Headsman of the Yuggera people of the Chepara area, for his 80th birthday celebration and a special smoking ceremony to bless the land on which The Clubhouse Moorooka stands.

Uncle Desmond Sandy will deliver a Welcome to Country, followed by a smoking ceremony across our grounds performed by Uncle Desmond Sandy's niece, Marissa and his grand nephew didgeridoo performer Jamal. We invite you to join the smoking procession around the grounds as she cleanses and blesses the land. After the ceremony Uncle Desmond wants nothing more than to share cake and conversation with his community. The bar will be open and food trucks serving dinner into the evening.

On Saturday 12 February we are making the most of our expansive green space with an outdoor cinema presented by Brisbane City Council.

Pack your chairs and picnic blankets and settle in under the stars from 5pm for a performance from The Swingalicious Big Band followed by an outdoor screening of The Princess Bride.

A delightfully postmodern fairy tale, The Princess Bride is a deft, intelligent mix of swashbuckling, romance, and comedy that takes an age-old damsel-in-distress story and makes it fresh. -Rotten Tomatoes

Enjoy drinks from our newly opened Garden Bar, as well as dinner from food trucks.

You may remember late last year we held a crowd fundraising campaign and promised an exclusive preview event for members who paid $35 and above. That event was scheduled for this weekend with a tour of the building.

But COVID-19 had other plans and we are uncomfortable encouraging people to gather during the peak of the wave. Sadly grand plans for the preview have been cancelled.

We hope our community will understand and not be disappointed. It’s hard to plan in this environment and it feels crazy to be opening a venue, however we have asked ourselves what does our community need right now?

We think we have the answer.

We can offer you a safe place to connect. A place to gather with friends and neighbours. A place to chill and enjoy our beautiful weather. A place to meet someone new. Come up with a new idea. To laugh. To be.

As far as venues go, we’re fairly COVID safe, with plenty of outdoor space to spread out . We know you’ll do your best to be as safe as possible.

So going forward here is the plan.

From Friday 18 February we will offer you a cafe in the mornings and a bar in the afternoons. Our club is fully fenced and is a perfect space for kids to run free while parents catch up. Pups are welcome as long as they are on a lead.

Our community cafe Bean on the Green will open Friday, Saturdays and Sundays 6-10am. The Garden Bar will open Friday evenings, 4-8pm, Saturdays 3-9pm and Sundays 3-8pm. As our patronage increases, so will the days we open.

Many of you have been asking how you can support us over this time. The practical answer is, well, just come say hello if you can and you feel comfortable. It probably goes without saying that anything you spend over the bar with us will go, quite literally and seriously keep us in business.

You can also buy a membership at the bar. Donate some goods. Sign up to volunteer.

We can’t wait to meet you on the greens.

A huge THANKS to these local legends

On Saturday 22 January we held our inaugural working bee with a bunch of local legends who willingly got their hands dirty to bring to life The Garden Bar. At the start of the bee we introduced ourselves and said why we had joined the working bee. We all agreed that we were there because we wanted to support a community space where we could come together as a community, and recognised this could only be a great as the effort the community itself makes to make it happen. Of course, we also wanted to meet other local legends.

A so a massive thank you to local legends and new friends Bess, Hugh, Sean, Beck, Nissa, Sander, Sarah, Nigel, Simon, Moira, Louise, Luke, Harvey, Courts, Brooke, Riad, Kristy and Cassie.

We couldn't have done it without fuel to keep us going, so a shout out to Botanicafe for the cakes, Woolworths Moorooka for morning tea, Green on the Bean Cafe for coffee and cookies, and Mark Bailey for dropping in with coffee and pastries.

We need help!

There is a lot of work to do to get the club open and we would love your help. In the coming weeks we will host working bees as well as offer volunteer opportunities. If you’ve got skills or enthusiasm, we would love to connect with you.

Volunteering is a great way to get to know your community, while helping to create a great space for your community to enjoy. The more members who contribute ideas and get involved at the club will help bring us closer to our goal of a stronger, more connected Moorooka.

Bar staff

Are you happy to do a bar shift now and again? If meeting and serving your community is up your alley, please fill out this form and we will be in touch.

Greens Maintenance

In October we were successful in securing a grant to return one of the greens to social bowling standard. We have been lucky enough to meet a local expert who has agreed to help us restore the green. We are looking for a bunch of volunteers to help with the restoration across the next six months.

We are also looking for volunteer/s to regularly mow the other two greens and the grass that surrounds the club.

If gorgeous grass is your thing, please fill out this form and we will be in touch.

Storage Shed working bee

We have a dusty shed that needs help! We are looking for someone who can fix/replace the roller doors and volunteers to pressure clean the shed, tidy it up and help with storage solutions.

If tidying and cleaning is your forte please fill out this form and we will be in touch.

Gardening Club

The Clubhouse Moorooka is fortunate enough to have lots of gardens to nurture and grow. We would like to form a gardening club which tends to our rose bushes (which we understand were planted in memory of past members), along with creating new garden designs and tending to these.

If growing things is your thing, please fill out this form and we will be in touch.

Events management

We are looking for people to assist with our opening event. You don’t have to be an events expert, but if you are willing to lend a hand on the day or in the lead up, please fill out this form and we will be in touch.

Construction of high-bars and trellis frame

We have fallen in love with high-bars with gardens in the centre which we spied at the Petersham Bowls Club. We would love some handy folk to bring their tools to the club and help construct these.

To create more shade we also fancy creating a trellis for vines to grow on, much like the one in Koala Community Garden.

We are looking for someone to design and oversee construction and some handy folk to help. If you're skilled in design or handy with tools, please fill out this form and we will be in touch.