{"id":658822,"date":"2026-05-09T01:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T01:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/658822\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T01:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T01:11:13","slug":"endeavour-foundation-harvests-last-mothers-day-flower-bloom-in-bundaberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/658822\/","title":{"rendered":"Endeavour Foundation harvests last Mother’s Day flower bloom in Bundaberg"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gay Gollschewsky has been buying flowers for Mother’s Day from a disability support organisation for 20 years.<\/p>\n

But Endeavour Foundation has announced this bloom will be the final harvest at its farm.<\/p>\n

“It’s sad. I’ll have to find somewhere else to get my chrysanthemums next year,” Ms Gollschewsky said.<\/p>\n

\"Rows<\/p>\n

Endeavour has been growing flowers for Mother’s Day for 35 years. (ABC News: Johanna Marie)<\/p>\n

The organisation has been selling bunches of flowers to the community from its Bundaberg farm for 35 years.<\/p>\n

In its peak year, employees and volunteers harvested about 70,000 flowers.<\/p>\n

But this year, due to bad weather and late planting, the number is closer to 40,000.<\/p>\n

“The weather has certainly not been our friend this year,” acting site manager Shaun Nortje said.\"A<\/p>\n

Shaun Nortje says extreme weather and a changing business model have contributed to the decision. (ABC Wide Bay: Grace Whiteside)<\/p>\n

“I think the community is understanding of the extreme rain event that we had earlier in the month.”<\/p>\n

Changing business model<\/p>\n

Mr Nortje said changing the business model had also contributed to the decision.<\/p>\n

The organisation will retain its site, including the packing sheds, but will no longer grow flowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, where the Endeavour Foundation in Bundaberg is moving our business to is to more of a focus on packaging solutions,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Nortje said there would be no jobs lost.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The organisation has sold up to 7,000 bouquets for Mother’s Day. (ABC News: Brad Marsellos)<\/p>\n

“They’ll actually benefit from being able to upskill in a packaging work environment,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We are supportive of the people that we do employ and providing them with skills and a sustainable future in a working environment.”<\/p>\n

The Australian Disability Network said 60 per cent of people aged 15\u201364 with a disability were part of the workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Aron Mercer is an expert in inclusive employment strategies. (Supplied: Aron Mercer)<\/p>\n

Griffith University PhD student in inclusive employment Aron Mercer, who is also one of the founders of Xceptional, a social enterprise helping neurodivergent people find jobs, said secure employment made a profound difference to people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

“Their confidence grew, they gained financial independence, and there’s a knock-on effect as well, not just for the individual, but also for their families.”<\/p>\n

Mr Mercer said employment gave many people a sense of purpose and belonging.<\/p>\n

“Their friendship networks multiplied as a result of starting work,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Suddenly, they’ve got four or five people that they would class as friends and, before, you know, they might not have had that.”<\/p>\n

Mr Mercer said Australian companies needed to do more to make their workplaces more inclusive for neurodivergent people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gay Gollschewsky has been buying flowers for Mother’s Day from a disability support organisation for 20 years. But…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,7110,67422,318383,318381,69351,313839,318382,24485],"class_list":["post-658822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-disability","tag-endeavour-foundation","tag-endeavour-foundation-bundaberg-flowers","tag-flower-harvest","tag-flowers","tag-mothers-day","tag-mothers-day-flowers","tag-people-with-disability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}