General News
11 July, 2025
Students help lift Bealiba
A team of bright, young determined crew members all the way from Sydney stopped in Bealiba on Wednesday to tackle some long standing community projects.
Tasks that may have taken locals weeks to achieve were obliterated in hours when The Big Lift (TBL) arrived in Bealiba earlier this week.
TBL is a volunteering society at the University of Technology Sydney, currently on route to Melbourne via nine tiny regional communities.
Part of the TBL Winter Trip, 80 students were split across two buses when they reached the Central Goldfields, with one stopping in Bealiba, the other continuing on to Newstead.
TBL’s Yuvraj Thakur said the Winter Trip focuses on offering volunteer work to regional towns.
“The Winter Trip is our flagship event during our semester break. We share four main values, community with towns, community with TBL, personal development and growth, and regional and city relationships,” he said.
“We have a model of Paying it Forward, we believe in this idea of doing things and not getting anything in return. Because the positivity, experiences and the fulfilment it brings us is what really stay with us.
“A lot of the towns we have been to have been affected by either floods or bushfires, so volunteering in these places really gives them an opportunity to rebuild.”
The crew’s leader Lina Nguyen said the team had to be split into multiple activity groups, and let loose throughout Bealiba to get the various tasks done.
“We’re really fortunate to be able to cover all different aspects of the town. Everything changes last minute, but we try to cover as much ground as possible,” she said.
As a result of TBL’s visit, The Bealiba Cemetery, hall and History Museum were cleaned and organised, and planting and maintenance was completed at the Bealiba Reservoir.
Jenny Lovel coordinated the team’s projects throughout Bealiba and said their assistance, including at the museum, was invaluable.
“The history room has been on the go, we have really been trying to clean that out for a while. We have taken over town jobs to keep it all tidy, but their help has really worked well,” she said.
While Phil Smith facilitated the team at the Bealiba Reservoir, he noticed the same affect.
“I had no idea what TBL was, I think it’s a fantastic program. It’s fantastic that these guys are volunteering their time, willing to stand up and do things for the community. They’ve done it fast,” he said.
“We have tried to do a few tree planting groups here with just a few local people, and sometimes it takes a day to do just half as much as what they did here.”
The stop in Bealiba not only marked another event completed by the team, but also TBL’s 100th regional visit Australia wide.
“This town combined with Newstead marks 100. That means we’ve surpassed 100 unique towns that TBL has visited and helped out since 2010,” Ms Nguyen said.
TBL organises and partakes in various other volunteer projects throughout the year, building their reach and impact in both local, student based and regional settings.
TBL also runs shorter, yet still impactful, one day trips referred to as Microlifts or Littlelifts, which also helps the 100 towns.
While the inner city university students had never even heard of either Bealiba or Newstead, Mr Thakur said the interactions between students and locals in these towns, have been moving.
“Something which really sticks with those that go on the Winter Trip is the conversations they have with locals, which really shifts there perspectives on various things like the meaning of community or how living in regional areas is different to what they assume it is,” he said.