Ferny Blog

24/05/2026

Its coming...

22/05/2026

♻️ Where to take your bottles and cans for the 10c refund — four spots within easy reach.

New to it? Containers for Change is Queensland's container refund scheme — most drink cans, cartons and bottles (150ml–3L) are worth 10c each when you return them.

If your stash is piling up, here's where to cash it in close to home:

📍Arana Hills Plaza — TOMRA reverse vending machine in the carpark (cnr Patricks Rd & Dawson Pde, behind the bus stop). Mon–Sat 7am–9pm, Sun 7am–6pm.

📍Arana Hills, 1160 South Pine Rd — U Can Recycle depot; takes bag drops too.

📍Keperra, Great Western Super Centre — a new solar-powered machine (cnr Samford & Settlement Rds), open 7am–9pm daily. Queensland-built, and it's taken 88,000+ containers since opening in April.

📍The Gap, 59 Settlement Rd — U Can Recycle pop-up and bag drop at Rivercity Family Church.

Bring your Containers for Change member number to get the refund straight to your bank — or donate it to a charity.

For how the scheme works, what's eligible, and to find your nearest return point: https://containersforchange.com.au

Every container counts towards improving our communities and the environment   Choose your location to get started Queensland Western Australia Containers for Change recycling schemes currently operate in Queensland and Western Australia.        

18/05/2026

🔥 If you'd rather not be surprised by smoke over the next few months, take 30 seconds to sign up for MoretonAlert.

Council has started fire-trail works on five bushland parcels it bought back under its Land Buyback for Environmental Purposes Program — three of them right on our doorstep:

114 Collins Road, Everton Hills
519 Bunya Road, Bunya
309 Eatons Crossing Road, Eatons Hill
Works run through to late June. Once the trails are in, council will use the cooler winter conditions to carry out planned ecological burns — reducing fuel loads and protecting native habitat ahead of next summer. Qualified wildlife spotter-catchers are on site during the trail works.

When a burn is happening nearby, MoretonAlert sends an SMS or email beforehand — worth the few seconds to set up.

Sign up: moretonbay.qld.gov.au/Services/Disaster-Management/MoretonAlert

MoretonAlert is a free SMS, email and voice notification system to provide emergency warnings affecting our city.

14/05/2026

🎡 Just over one week to go — the Hills Carnivale is back at George Willmore Park.

Saturday 30 May, from 12pm. Free entry. Ferny Way, Ferny Hills.

It's the grand finale of the Hills Festival — two stages of live music, a dedicated Kids Zone with amusement rides, workshops, games and roving entertainers, plus dozens of lifestyle markets and multicultural food trucks. A proper family day out without the entry price.

Pop it in your calendar 🗓️ Full details on the Visit Moreton Bay site.

https://www.visitmoretonbay.com.au/hillsfestival/hills-carnivale

09/05/2026

🌳 My backyard bush — Bunyaville Conservation Park.

Right on the edge of The Hills, Bunyaville has five bushwalking tracks running out from the picnic area, from a gentle stroll on the Classroom Track to the longer Iron Bark and Bunyaville tracks. Picnic tables, toilets, and it's shared with horseriders and mountain bikers — so it's also one of the few spots around here where dogs on leads can come along on the walking tracks.

One heads-up: **the Bunyaville Dam area and Mountain Bike Track 7 are closed through to 31 May 2026** for works, so plan around those.

Maps and details on the Queensland Parks site 👇
https://parks.qld.gov.au/parks/bunyaville

Have a favourite trail out there? Drop it in the comments.

08/05/2026

🏗️ The Hills District could be getting more crowded in years ahead.

Notices have been going up around the area about the Ferny Hills and Arana Hills Precinct Planning Project, so here's a plain-English catch-up.

Council has drafted "Future Directions Reports" for both precincts, looking at how to fit more housing diversity around the Ferny Grove and Grovely / Oxford Park train stations. The big numbers: parts of southern Ferny Hills could be rezoned to allow buildings of 3, 8 and up to 12 storeys; in Arana Hills, areas around Nepean Ave / Glenlee St / Hoxton St could go up to 15 storeys as a "district centre". The driver is Queensland's Shaping SEQ 2023 plan, which requires Moreton Bay to plan for 125,800 new homes by 2046.

Public consultation on the draft reports closed 24 April 2026. Council will review the feedback and bring the final reports back for consideration in late 2026. If adopted, the Planning Scheme amendment process kicks in after that — which legally requires another round of community consultation before anything is locked in.

Where to read more:

Ferny Hills: yoursay.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/ferny-hills-precinct-planning-project
Arana Hills: yoursay.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/arana-hills-precinct-planning-project
A community group has been tracking the proposal at fernyhillsfutures.org

I'll keep an eye on it and post again when the final reports go to council.

Share your feedback on the draft Arana Hills Precinct Planning Future Directions Report.

26/04/2026

🎪 May is Hills Festival month. Thats right, *our* Hills District.

For the whole of May, MBRC puts on a month of mostly-free events across Ferny Hills, Arana Hills, Ferny Grove and the surrounding suburbs — live music, markets, family days, workshops, and the big Hills Carnivale finale at George Willmore Park on Saturday 30 May.

The 2026 program (with dates, times and all the details) should be found at https://hillsfestival.com.au but it required a bit of looking on my part so I'll post that link as well (
https://issuu.com/visitmoretonbayregion/docs/hills_festival_2026_events_calendar )

Alternately, it might be easier to follow the page (should be tagged to this post)

We're open to posting about individual events as they come up. If there's something you're going to or running, let us know in the comments.

Dive into our extensive resources on the topic that interests you. It's like a masterclass to be explored at your own pace.

25/04/2026

👋 Hello again, neighbours.

The Ferny Blog has been quiet for a while — figured it was time to dust it off. A friendly local spot for what's on, what's opening, what's closing, and the odd "did you know" around Ferny Hills, Ferny Grove and Arana Hills.

I'll have a go at keeping the news flowing when I spot something worth sharing — but I'd love this to be more of a community noticeboard than a one-person broadcast. So if you've got a market, a fete, a new café, a fundraiser, a heads-up for the neighbours — drop it in the comments or send the page a message and I'll happily put it up.

Glad to be back. Let's see what May brings. ☕

24/04/2026

Hello Ferny Community. I created this page a long time ago and then failed to maintain it. Strangely enough, it still gets followers.
Please reach out if you would like me to post something to the page.