volunteer Terms

Thank you for choosing to volunteer with ECOllaboration. We are committed to creating a thriving, sustainable future for South East Queensland and rely on the generosity of volunteers like you to help us achieve our purpose.

Volunteering with us is unpaid and entirely voluntary — you’re free to leave at any time.

As a volunteer, you are not an employee of ECOllaboration and you won’t receive wages or employment entitlements. If you incur out-of-pocket expenses on our behalf, we will reimburse you for this — but you’ll need to get approval from us in writing to incur those expenses first and you will need to provide us with the tax receipts.

We will provide you with the necessary training, guidance and support to carry out your Role. In exchange, we ask that you:

• Perform your Role safely, honestly, diligently and to the best of your ability, in line with this Agreement, ECOllaboration’s policies and procedures and our reasonable instructions;
• Show up when you’ve said you will — or give us as much notice as you can if something urgent comes up;
• Treat everyone with kindness and respect — other volunteers, staff, landowners, and community members;
• Keep us updated on the progress of your work and your availability;
• Fully disclose to us any information relevant to your suitability to carry out your Role and make sure that information is and remains accurate, true and up to date;
• Keep any equipment or materials we provide you with safe and maintained;
• Comply with our Code of Conduct;
• If carrying out your Role from home or another non-ECOllaboration site, please ensure that the area you operate from is safe and suitable and any health and safety risks are minimised; and
• Tell us straight away if something goes wrong — a conflict of interest, an accident, a near-miss, or a safety concern.

Please do not speak to the media or post any content publicly on behalf of ECOllaboration without obtaining our consent first, or say or do anything that could damage our reputation.  

We love sharing what our volunteers get up to. But we won’t use any photos or videos that personally identify you without your permission. You are asked for this permission when you are registering as a volunteer. Please notify us in writing if this permission changes, though keep in mind that we can’t always remove images that have already been published.

We need to be able to freely use the work you create with us.

You retain any rights you hold in any Intellectual Property you created before commencing your Role. To the extent you provide us with this Intellectual Property you grant to us (and our sub-licensees), a perpetual, royalty free, irrevocable, non-exclusive license to use that Intellectual Property, and you warrant that you have the right to grant this license.

ECOllaboration will own and is entitled to the benefit of all Intellectual Property created or generated, in whole or in part, by you either in the course of your Role or when using our materials, equipment or facilities.

You consent to any act or omission with respect to all of the Intellectual Property above, that would otherwise infringe your Moral Rights therein. This essentially means we are able to modify and adapt your work for other purposes, and we are not required to identify you as the author in each case.

We know that some volunteers might be generating works that they want to use elsewhere (e.g. general nature photography), or who might want credit noted when their work is used. If you have any concerns about whether this is relevant to your Role, please get in touch with us before accepting the Offer.

If we provide you with access to any of our Intellectual Property, you are entitled to use it solely for the purpose of carrying out your Role during the term of this Agreement, unless we advise you in writing otherwise.

• Personal information

We may collect Personal Information from you in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

You will need to ensure that if you handle any Personal Information in connection with your Role (such as names, phone numbers, emails and addresses), that you do so in accordance with all relevant privacy laws and our Privacy Policy. Don’t worry, if this is relevant to your Role, we will brief you on how to meet these requirements.

• Confidential information

Whilst volunteering with us, you may receive information about ECOllaboration that is not publicly known. You agree to keep our Confidential Information confidential at all times and not use or disclose that Confidential Information except with our prior written consent.

The safety and wellbeing of our team is our highest priority. We’ll always provide proper briefings, equipment, and supervision — and we require you to follow the safe work processes and instructions we give and use any personal protective equipment we provide.

If your Role involves direct contact with children, we may require you to hold a current Blue Card before you start. If you hold a Blue Card you must tell us immediately if it becomes cancelled, expired or restricted.

All volunteers must disclose any unspent convictions that are relevant to their Role prior to accepting the Offer — this includes offences involving violence, dishonesty, fraud, drugs, or offences against children or vulnerable people.

We hold public liability and volunteer accident insurance which will generally provide coverage when you’re acting within the scope of your Role and following our policies and procedures.

It doesn’t cover you if you go off-script — for example, doing something beyond what we’ve asked you to do or acting in breach of these terms. Ask us if you’d like more detail about what the policy covers.

Depending on the nature of your Role, you may be exposed to certain risks. For example, working outdoors in nature carries risks of slips, trips and falls on uneven terrain, exposure to inclement weather conditions and contact with wildlife that could lead to bites or stings. By volunteering with us, you acknowledge and accept responsibility for these risks and any associated consequences.

We’re committed to taking all reasonable precautions to provide a safe working environment for our team, but to the extent permitted by law, we disclaim, and you agree to release us from, any responsibility for injuries, loss or damage you incur in connection with volunteering with us. Remember, if you have any safety concerns, please raise them with us as soon as possible – we never want you to feel uncomfortable or unsafe when working with us!

You can stop volunteering at any time — we just ask for a heads-up where possible so we can plan around it. At least two week’s notice is ideal.

We can also end your engagement as a volunteer at any time. In most cases we’ll have a conversation first, but we reserve the right to immediately stand you down if there’s a serious issue, such as a safety concern, misconduct, a lapse in required credentials or breach of this Agreement. Alternatively, we might just need to end your engagement because the Role is no longer required or the associated project has come to an end.

When you finish up with us, please return any equipment, uniforms, Intellectual Property or other materials of ours as soon as possible.   

• Making changes

Except where this Agreement provides otherwise, any changes to these terms need to be agreed in writing by both parties.

• The nature of your engagement

Nothing in these terms creates a legal partnership, contractor relationship, joint venture, employer and employee or agency relationship. Except where these terms provide otherwise, neither of us can act or incur liability on behalf of the other.

You cannot assign your rights and obligations under this Agreement to another party.  

By entering into this Agreement, you warrant that you are 18 years of age or older or, if you are under 18, that you have parental/guardian consent to enter into this Agreement.

• Surviving clauses

Clauses 4, 5, 7 and clauses required for interpretation survive termination or expiry of this Agreement.

• Governing law

This Agreement constitutes a deed and is governed by the laws of Queensland, Australia. Any disputes that reach court will be heard in the courts of Queensland, Australia.  

• When we use the following words with capital letters, here’s what we mean:

   

  Agreement	These Volunteer Terms together with your Offer and any attachments or documentation incorporated by reference.
  Confidential Information	Any information (such as passwords, business plans, customer lists and financial records), that either party shares that is marked confidential by the discloser or which the recipient ought reasonably know is commercially sensitive by nature, other than information that the recipient can establish: a. they already had in their lawful possession; b. was in the public domain at the time of receipt; or b. after receipt, became part of the public domain without fault by the recipient.
  Intellectual Property	Materials or content in any form (including but not limited to, pictures, photographs, videos, written word, source code, layouts, designs, data, reports and audio files, inventions), and all present and future rights therein, whether issued or pending, registered or unregistered, including all forms of copyright, patents, trademarks, designs and trade secrets, any modifications and improvements thereto and all attaching statutory and common law rights.
  Moral Rights	Means rights of integrity of authorship, rights of attribution of authorship, rights not to have authorship falsely attributed, and rights of a similar nature conferred by statute, that may now exist or that may come to exist.
  Offer	The email you have received from us entitled ‘Offer to become an ECOllaboration Volunteer’, including any documents incorporated by reference such as the ‘Volunteer Onboarding Form’.
  Personal Information	Any information or opinion relating to or about an identified or identifiable natural person or about an individual who is reasonably identifiable.
  Privacy Policy	The ECOllaboration Privacy Policy accessible via our website.
  Role	The activities/services you are responsible for providing to us, described in the ‘Role Description’ section of the Offer, subject to variation by agreement of the parties from time to time.
  Special Conditions	Any conditions particular to you which override these terms (where necessary), as set out in your Offer.

We’re always happy to talk things through. If anything here isn’t clear, please get in touch with your Reporting Officer at ECOllaboration before accepting your Offer, and/or obtain independent advice.

ECOllaboration Ltd

Volunteer Terms

Version 1.0

Last updated: 12 March 2026