Little Lifts
Little Lifts are our weekend volunteering trips to regional towns in NSW. They have the same foundational focus as our flagship trip in July, however students stay in one town for two nights, volunteering with the community and completing 12 hours of service projects. A two-night stay has the valuable benefit of allowing closer engagement with communities and more time to work on service projects.
We introduced Little Lifts in 2017, running one per semester. In 2019, we increased this to three over course of the year. In 2022, we ran a record four little lifts!
Canowindra, 2021
On the 9th of April 2021, 20 brand new Lifters headed west towards the gorgeous town of Canowindra. We had previously visited Canowindra on one of our Winter Trips.
Students volunteered in and around Canowindra Public School on Saturday, completing activities ranging from painting to mulching, and ultimately replanting most of the school’s garden!
As this took most of the day, we took the Lifters to a lookout to enjoy sunset (pictured below). After having dinner at the local pub, we returned to this spot a few hours later to do some stargazing. The stars are dazzling several hundred kilometres west of Sydney’s light-polluted skies.
Lifters throwing up their fists, doing TBL’s signature ‘Yeah Buddy!’
Lifters greatly enjoyed the opportunity to refurbish Canowindra Public School’s facilities during the school holidays. They cherished the knowledge that upon the students’ return, they would find that they had shiny new equipment to play with, as well as a newly replanted garden.
On Sunday, Lifters continued to volunteer and were treated to a talk about the history of Canowindra by the school’s principal, Sharon Hawker. As they eagerly asked questions to learn more about the town’s rich history, we could tell that they very much enjoyed this talk.
We would like to thank Sharon and the remainder of the welcoming community for allowing us to visit and volunteer at Canowindra Public School.
Wyangala, 2022
On the 11th of February, a new set of Lifters set off on our third visit to the town of Wyangala (we have previously visited in 2018 and 2019). At Wyangala Dam Public School, participants completed a variety of service projects including weeding, creating an irrigation system for the garden they built, cleaning and painting two large school signs, and other similar tasks.
Unlike our last visit, when Wyangala Dam’s water level had dropped from 88% to 15.9% within a year, during this visit it stood at an astounding 98.2%.
Lifters received the opportunity to engage with the local community, working on the above service projects with townspeople and the students of the school (during their holidays). As many had not visited regional Australia in the past, this was a valuable opportunity to open their minds and experience an entirely different way of life than the one they were used to.
Reflecting on this, one Lifter has said:
I enjoyed everything but I think the afternoon at the RFS fire station and the sense of community I experienced was awesome! I really enjoyed travelling and seeing a different side to life than what is typical in the city.
A huge thank you to Lea Smith and Wyangala for allowing us the opportunity to visit their incredible town.
Cessnock , 2025
We capped off the year with the Little Lift at the New Gokula farm near Cessnock. We spent the hot weekend working across the farm on bush regeneration, weeding and painting initiatives. Jayasri, the local contacts welcomed us with opened arms as we connected with the residents and their beautifully unique ways of life.
We fell in love with the peacocks and cows who called the farm home, all while growing into a little family for the weekend. On this Little Lift we learnt the importance of taking care of one another and the joys of community, and took those lessons back to Sydney for our regular lives.
Glen Davis , 2026
Our second Little Lift of the year took TBL (in collaboration with Ausleap and Red Cross) to Glen Davis for our 3rd year in a row! After a short stopover in Lithgow for lunch, we arrived in the village and were immediately welcomed by Wayne Wilson, the President of the Glen Davis Community Association. After settling in, we were treated to a tour of the village including the beautiful home of community members Tiger Lily and her husband.
Our first day of volunteering involved an extensive tree-planting and bush regeneration project with the Capertee Valley Landcare group and Lithgow City Council. With the help of Ailis, Judy and more volunteers from multiple organisations, we were able to plant a little over 600 trees in a couple of hours! Later that night, we had a town talk with local cafe-owners and community members where we learnt about the history of the town and life in Glen Davis, which we spoke more about with them over dinner.
Our last day involved cleaning up and garden work around the community hall, with some going to the house of local artist Bill Norcross to help clean his garden space, eventually joining him for a cuppa at the local cafe once the work was done! After saying our goodbyes and thank yous to the townspeople, TBL made the journey back to UTS, stopping by Pearson's Lookout for photos and Richmond for dinner, and saying our final goodbyes back at UTS. Overall, Glen Davis ran about as perfectly as a Little Lift can, and a massive thank you to everyone involved for making it happen!!
Duneedoo, 2026
At the end of May, The Big Lift visited the iconic town of Dunedoo in central western New South Wales. TBL first visited Dunedoo in 2019. We were greeted by our ever knowledgeable town contact, Sally, who showed us around town and the various sites we were to volunteer at the next day. Our group of 16 was spread across 4 sites in the town. On the first day of volunteering, we helped to revamp the Dunedoo Woodlands entry, gardened around the medical centre, cut down destructive trees around the Dunedoo Showground and uplifted the Landcare Shed. The following day, all of the team were focused on cleaning up the gardens of St Michael's Primary, which involved weeding, planting and power tools.
What was most apparent to us about Dunedoo was the love and grit that everyone in the town possesses. All ages of Dunedoo residents came out for the weekend to guide and assist us with our volunteering, no matter what other important family events or health complications they themselves were experiencing. Such level of care and kindness was so inspiring and a great reminder of the good things we can do when we come together.
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