Community & Business
10 April, 2026
Join a Club, Join a Legacy
Volunteers make much of what we do around Clifton tick, but every group needs more people to put up their hands and pitch in. This week, we take a look at some of those who do volunteer, and we talk to them about why they give up their time to do what they do.
A few weeks ago we reported on four new members of the Clifton RSL Sub-branch who have put up their hands to lead the branch.
The four ex-servicemen, are Greg, Jason, Rod Johnstone and Rob Palmer.
They’re joined on the sub-branch leadership team by Chris Burgess and Bernie Trimingham.
Last Thursday, the 2nd of April Greg and Jason sat down with The Clifton Courier, to discuss why they volunteer.
Greg spent 26 years in the Army, serving in East Timor and Iraq, alongside a handful of humanitarian missions.
Jason was in the infantry, spent 20 years in the army and was deployed to Somalia.
In fact Friday was the anniversary of the death of one of Jason’s comrades, Lance Corporal Shannon McAliney, who died in the service of his country on the 2nd of April 1993.
He was 21.
Jason had his 23rd birthday in Somalia.
Jason was wearing a commemorative arm band.
Both have just moved to Clifton, both are enjoying the peace and community Clifton has to offer.
However what’s more notable, is that these two want to offer something back.
Greg had been in the Warwick RSL since 2009 while Jason has been in various RSLs from Brisbane to Parramatta, having been involved for the past five or so years before coming to Clifton.
Or as Jason said, “Before I found my home here in Clifton.”
But neither men are happy to rest on their laurels, they’re quite driven to leave this place better than they found it.
“I think the really important thing is putting the emphasis back on looking after our veterans, our service men and women.” Greg said.
“Just to be there for them...to be a sounding board there for blokes when they need a hand and they feel like there’s nothing else there,” he added.
For veterans, it’s Greg, Jason and their team’s job to make sure they know they aren’t alone.
It’s clear talking to both these men that there is something those who haven’t served won’t get about what they do.
It’s a huge transition back to civilian life, and the only ones who get it are those who have done it.
“It’s hard, its very, very hard to get back into civilian life,” Jason said.
In this sense, the RSL is the support network.
The think-tank of sorts, where vets are able to go and talk to those who have been through what they’ve been through.
The other thing the RSL will do, is support the families.
“For the families too they have to deal with a lot...veterans coming back into the civilian world, that stuff never really goes away.” Greg said.
But it’s not just the combat experience that sticks with vets.
Many of them spend formative years of their lives learning, drilling and perfecting a very particular way of being.
Of working, connecting, communicating.
Learning to work in ways that are particular to being in the armed forces.
“The other thing that’s really important for the RSL is that we’re the Custodians of Ceremony,” Greg said.
“So making sure within our community that are customs and traditions are passed on, from veterans and the RSL, but to the community.”
Rituals and ceremonies have served humans for millennia as reminders.
Jason moved to Clifton with his wife to be closer to health services, having just had a stomach cancer cut out.
Greg moved to a little property in Sandy Camp with his family for a change of scene.
“And finding these guys, in the RSL, has meant a massive amount,” Jason said.
Greg, Jason, Rob and Rod loosely met at last year’s Anzac Day event hosted by the Warwick RSL.
“A lot of us just rocked up on ANZAC Day at the luncheon and went ‘Ah! there’s another bloke with medals’.” Greg said.
“Yeah they ambushed me,” Jason said of the encounter.
There’s a camaraderie between the four of them that they’ll tell you about.
It was formed while squatting in the heat, peppered by mozzies, sweating uncontrollably.
Greg and Jason will tell you it’s in those difficult, uncomfortable circumstances that you form unbreakable bonds.
Singing praises for Anne Glasheen and Bernie Trimingham who among others, kept the Sub-Branch moving, the pair is also excited about what they can bring.
“With the cost of living crisis at the moment it’s too expensive for veterans to stay in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, on the Coast.”
Places like Clifton offer up ideal alternatives for veterans.
“So if we can provide a better service and lifestyle out here for them then that’s really important.” Greg said.
“Calming, it’s really calming out here, and peaceful,” Jason also added.
But the pair is also very aware that a community goes both ways.
The Sub-branch will soon position itself in the Senior Citizen’s Hall, where it can provide a space for not only veterans, but the community, because the RSL is just a small part of a bigger Clifton community which is maintained and kept healthy by men like Greg and Jason.
