PETER Mahony is a self-confessed environmentalist who loves his wife and family dearly and yearns to make the world a better place “one small step at a time”.
Guiding everything he does is a deep commitment to and optimistic belief in his Catholic faith.
“My life to date has been brim-full of adventure and rewarding personal relationships and my Catholic faith remains one of the strongest tenets of that life,” he said.
“It is a faith I was baptised into and developed steadily under the guidance of some fantastic teachers.
“It is a faith that has been liberally questioned at times, and regularly remodelled so that it remains a comfortable pair of shoes that plays no small role in taking me where I need to go.”
Those teachers include his family. Peter, 34, is the eldest of five children who grew up on a 20,000ha sheep and cattle property 90km south of Blackall in central Queensland, and the three-hour weekly round trip to Mass was an integral part of Mahony social life.
Next came a secondary boarding school education under the guidance of the Christian Brothers at St Brendan’s, Yeppoon, followed by the influence of the Marist Brothers at Ashgrove in Brisbane where he supplemented his savings by working in schools while studying agricultural economics in Brisbane.
“In these formative years I was fortunate indeed to be surrounded by a vibrant Catholic community at St Lucia and a ready array of wise and inspiring teachers to help answer the many questions that young people have about our faith and how we live it,” Peter said.
In 1995, Peter travelled to India with Divine Word Missionary Father Liam Horsfall and met Mother Teresa in Calcutta.
“I still remember her saying of faith to ‘keep it simple’,” he said.
“In filling the world with love she did what she could – helping one old woman at a time.”
Along with working his property “Woolshed”, near Theodore in central Queensland, Peter has also established an environment consultancy business called AXM Research and says he uses a similar ethos to Mother Teresa’s for the environment.
“Starting with my own 4000ha farm and gradually working with other farms and mine rehab sites I hope to change our environment for the better one hectare at a time.
“Life on the land can be very difficult at times when it seems that nature (God) is dealing you a bad hand. For example the 2006 drought (was) the worst on record for our farm and the first year we had bought the property with a large debt.
“My faith allows me to believe that God has a purpose even for these tests.”
In Theodore, Peter was one of three lay leaders who led the Liturgy of the Word celebration every second week and deputised for funerals.
“Perhaps the one article of faith that drives me all day, every day is Jesus’ words ‘No one lights a lamp and covers it with a bowl or puts it under a bed’ and further, ‘whoever has something will be given more, but whoever has nothing will have taken away from him even the little he thinks he has’ (Luke 8:16-18).
“Each day I think that Jesus expects me to do better with the specific talents I have. Forgive failure, yes – but always urging me on.”
At the moment, Peter, wife Nikki and their four children have just moved to a place near Moulins, in central France, having leased out their 4000ha biodynamic farm near Theodore for the next two years.
Peter said the trip had a two-fold purpose, the first allowing the four children to undertake a different education while young enough to enjoy it – the eldest is eight and the youngest is three.
He said the second reason was to allow both he and Nikki to work on some personal projects.
“Partly those projects involve taking opportunities we don’t have at home such as music, language and history, and partly it involves projects that will likely have long-term effects on what we do when we return to Australia.”
One project that Peter is still involved with even while in France is Life Source, an environmental group that supports agriculture as a positive environmental solution.
Peter was one of the founders of the group that is also dedicated to the education and awareness of past, present and future agriculture, and generating understanding of why it is integral to the health of the country and the people who inhabit it.
“As a farmer you are fortunate to see the beauty of God in the everyday – the trees, the animals, the silence.
“For me that very earthy connection is very important.
“As I watch the sun rise, the grass grow in spring and regular cycle of birth, vibrancy, death and decay it re-enforces the kindness of a generous God and the small but not insignificant role mankind has in our world.”
Peter said he saw himself as being an integral part of the world’s ecological conversion – “not just the Catholic Church’s conversion”.
“The next decade will yield many changes to how we view the quality of the food we eat and the resources it takes to produce it,” he said.
“More importantly we will start to understand that years of mining fertility from our soils have a direct impact on individual health and indeed on the health of our society.
“This is also my area of professional expertise.
“Unfortunately, Copenhagen should reiterate to us that our faith in government to solve all problems is badly misplaced.”
Peter said that, following the 2009 state election, the politics of preference deals saw a wave of “environmental” legislation introduced that would, ironically, prove detrimental to the environment.
“(They) were met with a wave of protest from the people who actually do manage the land and in most cases manage it very well such as Aborigines and farmers.”
Peter sees a real role for the Church to expedite genuine ecological and environmental reform by giving a voice to those who currently don’t have one.
“This is the ecological conversion worthy of Catholic traditions and indeed in my opinion, the surest path to a healthier, more diverse and more resilient environment,” he said.
“I see myself putting forward practical solutions to environmental problems that we all recognise need to be addressed.
“These are problems that affect people all over the world like land degradation and decreasing quality of food.”
