There's plenty happening across the Bundaberg Region these September school holidays to keep the entire family entertained.
Bundaberg Regional Council is hosting a range of exciting events, activities, performances and workshops for young people and families.
Highlights include a free Disney movie at the Moncrieff Entertainment Centre, a community skating event, drive-in movies and some exciting new additions at the Botanic Gardens.
Botanic Gardens
Activities at the Botanic Gardens include the Australian Sugar Cane Railway and Bundaberg Regional Council Parks and Gardens portfolio spokesperson Cr Wayne Honor said there were a range of new activities for kids.
“The Botanic Gardens is a great day out for families and the Sugar Cane Railway is a timeless treat for families, but we’ve also got plenty of other options over the school holidays,” Cr Honor said.
Those options include a new free kids activity sheet with a mini colour pencil pack for our younger visitors. The sheet features nine different activities based around what’s flowering in the Gardens this time of year and what animals can be spotted.
“Following on from the success of our first kids’ activity trail launched last school holidays, we have a great new activity booklet and trail aimed at younger children which is full of interesting activities,” Cr Honor said.
The booklet will be available early in the first week of the school holidays and is a self-guided activity trail featuring 10 stops behind Cafe 1928 and each stop will be identified with a numbered sign indicating where to complete the activity.”
“There are also five additional activities in the booklet that kids can complete at the gardens or at home along with a free drawing page,” Cr Honor said.
“Older kids can also collect their own activity booklet and pencil and head off around the top lake, following the signs to complete the 20 self-guided activities.
“The free activity booklets and pencils can be picked up from Cafe 1928, Hinkler Hall of Aviation or the Bundaberg and District Historical Museum.”
The Hinkler Hall of Aviation also has a hometown holiday special for locals.
Tickets are priced at $8 for adults, $5 for kids and seniors, and $15 for family (one adult and two kids). Though, to get these ticket prices tickets must be bought at the time of entry and proof of address is required.
Skate with a mate
For those in the Bundaberg hinterland, skate with a mate ensures young people can skate in a safe environment and, you guessed it, with a mate.
Community Development Officer at Childers Neighbourhood Centre Debra Murphy helped organise the event, which will be held on 23 September at the Childers Skate Park, between 1 and 4pm and then at the Woodgate Skate park the following day (24 September) from 9am-12pm.
“The idea is to provide an activity for the youth of Childers to make connections, so we have red frogs from Brisbane coming up and they’ll be providing music, competitions and little prizes and a barbecue,” said Debra.
“It gives the kids something to do and interact around their skatepark, doing something that they love in a safe environment.”
Bundaberg Regional Art Galleries
While Bundaberg Regional Galleries won’t be running the usual workshops for school holidays due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, there’s still plenty on offer for the school holidays.
The team are offering a take-home pack during the September school holidays, which compliments the FOUND! Exhibition and there’s also an online art initiative.
“We have a take home FOUND! Dog Collage pack which can be collected from the Bundaberg Regional Art Gallery.
“During the closure of the galleries we started the #artsbundyathome initiative. One component of this was the Daily Art Challenge. Now we are open children and adults can also come into the Bundaberg Art Gallery + Childers Arts Space and collect a Daily Art Challenge journal for the month of September with 30 themes to enjoy.”
Moncrieff and movies
The September school holidays wouldn't complete without a visit to the cinema and Moncrieff Entertainment Centre has you covered.
On 2 October the Moncrieff Entertainment Centre is holding a free family movie, screening the new Aladdin film. The drive-in movie night will also return for School holidays and family favourite Oddball will screen at the Bundaberg recreational precinct on 25 September.
Bundaberg Regional Libraries
Bundaberg Regional Libraries are running a range of reading activities these school holidays, and even a murder mystery.
Children 6-14 years of age can pick up a reading challenge booklet from one of the library branches from Monday, 17 September.
Participants can complete the challenges to earn stickers and then go into the draw to win prizes. Challenges must be completed by 16 October.
These school holiday’s children and adults can also team up to solve the mysterious death of Bundaberg Regional Library puppet, Mr Fluffy!
“The beloved toy rabbit called Mr Fluffy is a rising star in the library ‘cute and fluffy’ mascot world and was tragically found deceased. It’s up to you to figure out who the culprit was,” said youth services librarian Jaala Beauchamp
“They can come in and pick up the case booklet from one our libraries which has all the information about the case or can use our website where you can find videos of the suspects and the case information.”
“We’ll also be hosting one or two zoom session here people can discuss the case notes.”
There’s plenty of other events around the region, so be sure to keep tabs on all the holiday happenings by visiting: https://www.whatsonbundaberg.com.au/.
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