Woohoo! The summer school holidays will officially commence from 3pm on Friday 13 December with the 2025 school year to kick off on Monday 27 January. In order to ensure the next six weeks are nothing short of enjoyable, we have compiled a fantastic list of wonderful, educational, engaging and entertaining activities for both you and your children to enjoy in and around the Burdekin community to make this school holiday period one for the history books!
Fun Activities At The Library
Starting off strong, both the Ayr and Home Hill branches of the Burdekin Library have designed a fantastic schedule of school holiday activities for children aged four years and older to enjoy!
With activities like Christmas Decoration Craft, Festive Biscuit Decorating, Owl Tealight Ceramic Painting, Movie Sessions, Scratch Art, Code Club and so many more scheduled from December into January, the Burdekin Library is certainly the place to be these holidays! Bookings are essential and can be made online at https://bit.ly/burdekinlibraryevents from Thursday 28 November.
Over the course of the holidays, the Burdekin Library will be holding their annual Summer Reading Club for all school aged children to participate in. Visit the library before Thursday 19 December to register, collect the activity booklet and get started on completing the awesome challenges for the chance to win terrific prizes and an invitation to the Summer Reading Club Party!
Along with the amazing scheduled activities, both library branches provide a welcoming environment for the community to enjoy, and home several iPads and tablets for membership cardholders to use as well as plenty of puzzles and colouring in activities which are also available upon request.
The Burdekin Library located at 108 Graham Street, Ayr is open to the public from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and 9am to 1pm on Saturday.
The Home Hill Branch located at 77 – 79 Ninth Avenue, Home Hill is open from 1pm to 5pm Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and from 10am to 12pm as well as 2pm to 5pm on Wednesday.
Get Active With Plantation Parkrun
With so many enriching and educational opportunities to take advantage of these school holidays, another awesome way to spend time together as a family over the course of the next six weeks is by registering for the Plantation parkrun!
Plantation parkrun is held each Saturday at 7am at Plantation Park off the Bruce Highway and is a completely free community event where participants of all ages can walk, jog, run, volunteer or spectate along the 5-kilometre trail.
Why not create a school holiday family competition and see who can improve their finish line time the most in six weeks? It has been proven time and time again that running, walking and moving your body in any way contributes to improving not only your physical health but also greatly improves your mental health and overall well-being in the areas of sleep, stress management, confidence, memory and cognitive function! Register for this Saturday’s parkrun event online now at www.parkrun.com.au/plantation/.
Explore Nature At A Local Park
In the interest of getting out and about in the community, set aside a couple of hours to enjoy the sunshine and gorgeous weather conditions whilst surrounding yourself with the natural beauty of one of the Burdekin Shire’s local parks.
Pack a perfect picnic basket as well as a football or two and make sure to swing by either the Ayr or Home Hill Library on your travels to pick up a free copy of the Burdekin Shire Council’s wonderful Wink and Blink school holiday activity booklets.
Set the navigation to either Plantation Park (Ayr), Anzac Park (Ayr), Coutts Park (Ayr), Alva Beach Park (Alva Beach), Arch Dunn Memorial Park (Home Hill), Ford Park (Home Hill), Watson’s Green Park (Home Hill), Spiller Street Park (Brandon) or Brolga Park (Giru) and enjoy plenty of quality family time away from the screens, soaking up rays of vitamin D!
With calendars quickly filling up for 2025, it’s important to use the next six weeks as time to make memories with one another, and the Burdekin community is overflowing with plenty of amazing local facilities, and activities for families with children of all ages to enjoy these school holidays!