The Board of the Lions Club of Leopold 2024-25 headed up by Lion President Rhiannon Russell (centre)

Gateway Sanctuary, Leopold

The Lions Club of Leopold was instrumental in the development of a flat, empty, flood prone block of land into what is now the Gateway Sanctuary. The original design was by Kirsten Mitchell, and the club suggested to the then Bellarine Rural City Council that they take it up and change the block into a beautiful community facility. Council agreed, and Alcoa Australia paid for the earthworks. Public tree planting days placed thousands of trees and shrubs on site, and the sanctuary as we know it today commenced to grow.

Lions Clubs International is the world's largest service club organization with more than 1.4 million members in approximately 46,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas around the world.