We had a great time filming with The Great South East at Oxley Creek Common recently. The segment about the festival went to air on 2 September.

If you’re looking for up to the minute information about the places to see and the things to do in greater Brisbane, check out Must Do Brisbane! http://wwwmustdobrisbane.com

This fantastic website offers all the latest news about what’s happening in our great city. Our thanks to Must Do Brisbane for their support in helping us spread the word about the Peaks to Points Festival! http://www.mustdobrisbane.com/box_entry/peaks_to_points_festival.asp

The start of Peaks to Points is fast approaching! As a non-profit event, the festival appreciates the support of websites such as Weekend Notes, in helping to get the word out about our wonderful activities. For all the latest news about what’s happening in Brisbane and beyond, visit http://www.weekendnotes.com/brisbane/

Brisbane City Council has been investing in new ways to protect the city’s creek catchments and waterways with the addition of rainwater gardens across

Brisbane City Council has been investing in new ways to protect the city’s creek catchments and waterways with the addition of rainwater gardens around the city.

several suburbs in the city.

The roadside gardens most recently were installed along Cavendish Road in Coorparoo, and aren’t to be confused with any regular garden bed.

The innovative gardens not only look good as part of the streetscape but they also help to protect our local waterways.

They work by collecting water running off from the roads and footpaths in the raingarden, where soil and plants naturally filter pollutants.  The filtered stormwater then flows slowly to the local creek, helping to protect our waterways, by keeping pollutants from entering untreated through the stormwater drains.

In addition to the seven raingardens recently installed in Coorparoo, Council has already established a number of raingardens around the city, including sites at:

• Boles Street,Stafford
• Byth Street, Stafford
• Quandeine Street, Stafford
• Matthews Street, Stafford
• Streisand Drive, Bridgeman Downs
• Saturn Crescent, Bridgeman Downs
• Logan Road, Greenslopes

The investment to include raingardens in urban street designs is part of Council’s 2026 vision to deliver a well designed subtropical city and a healthy river and bay.

Sunday 2nd September | 10am – 4pm

We have a fantastic range of events planned for the official launch of the Peaks to Points Festival on 2 September, at Festival Family Day. Come and celebrate father’s day with us at Oxley Creek Common.

Kids can join the jam at the Sound Playground, featuring a conglomeration of musical contraptions, just made to be hit! From tuned truck mag wheels and pool filters to the funky ‘thongaphone’, anyone can make music on this way-out musical installation! There will also be a range of marimbas set up at Marimbas on the Move. These wooden xylophones offer a fun and creative way for people to make their own music.

Local artist, Julia Bell, will be running a series of art workshops for children throughout the day. There will also be Geckoes Wildlife presentations, an animal farm run by Corinda State High School, and children’s entertainment. Kids can learn Bollywood dance techniques at interactive workshops with the Bollywood Dhamaka Dancers.

Test your map-reading skills with an orienteering activity organised by Orienteering Queensland, and have fun expoloring Oxley Creek Common while you complete the task.

For the grown-ups there will be worm farming and composting demonstrations, as well as a sustainability expo and information displays by local community and environment groups. Seedball making workshops will run throughout the day. Darryl Jones will give a talk on ‘living with koalas’ and there will be a workshop about the benefits of cultivating native bees.

Families can explore nearby Oxley Creek by canoe, with free canoeing operated by the Pamphlet Sea Scouts. Or join the Recycling Olympics to test your recycling skills!

Oxley Creek Common | Sherwood Road, Rocklea.

>> download the brochure [ pdf | 120kb ]

Saturday 8^thof September | between 10 am and 1 pm

The Peaks to Points Festival is all about celebrating and enjoying south east Queensland’s wonderful environment – at any age. If you’re thinking about retirement and looking for a place that takes full advantage of its natural surrounds, look no further than the beautiful village of Aveo Durack, festival sponsor.

This secure retirement community boasts two outdoor swimming pools and an indoor hydrotherapy pool, a manicured croquet lawn with bowls green and an on-site nurse available 24/7, plus over 40 activities to suit all tastes and lifestyles from archery to Tai Chi.

The village is holding an Open Day on Saturday, 8 September, where people can view the site’s stunning, brand-new, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom villas. Participate in a tour of the village and its amenities, or simply come along and enjoy a sausage sizzle and a chat.

Aveo Durack’s Open Day | 356 Blunder Road, Durack.

For more information please call 13 AVEO (13 28 36).

Are you looking for ideas to make your house more sustainable? More than 200 sustainable homes across Australia will be open to the public on Sunday 9 September, as part of Sustainable House Day. You’re sure to find lots of practical advice and information to make your home more environmentally friendly.

Sustainable House Day is a national annual event showcasing sustainable living for ideas and inspiration, an initiative in keeping with the philosophy of the Peaks to Points Festival, which aims to support sustainability measures in all facets of our daily life.

All open homes are free to enter. There is also a variety of events, activities, seminars and public tours of green buildings as part of the Sustainable House Day campaign.

Participating homes will be showcasing sustainable living, conducting tours and providing practical information and experience of building or retrofitting an existing home. Many homes will also feature access to product suppliers, builders and architects. SHD12 will be celebrating “ 2012 The Year of Sustainable Energy for All”, a United Nations initiative.

The event an initiative of the Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES). For more information including house details and locations visit                               www.sustainablehouseday.com

Oxley Creek at Cliveden Reserve

Cliveden Avenue Bushcare Group Coordinator, Carole Bristow, describes her patch of Oxley Creek at Corinda as “an intriguing little piece of bush with lots of character and different plant communities”.

Carole has been involved with the group for 16 years. She joined after completing a TAFE subject in bush regeneration.

“The group’s focus is on managing invasive weeds including Catsclaw Creeper, to let the bushland return to a healthy state through natural regeneration,” Carole said. “This was quite a task after the 2011 floods, which brought in new weed species.  We worked hard to remove large areas of them before they seeded.  Breaking the seeding cycle of weeds is our main focus”.

Lucky contractors scored the job of removing the debris left from the floods, which included portaloos!

If you want to see great plant diversity in a small area, Cliveden Avenue Reserve is the place to go – the one and a half hectare site is home to mangrove, eucalypt and rainforest plant communities, including the endangered angle-stemmed myrtle (Gossia gonoclada).

Group members will host a guided walk through the reserve as part of the Peaks to Points Festival. The walk is on Sunday 9 September at 8.45am for a 9am start, returning at 11am. Meet at the eastern end ofCliveden Avenue, Corinda, on the reserve.

 Sunday 16 September | 9am to 3pm

Entemologist Tim Heard transfers a nest of native stingless bees. Tim is hosting a workshop as part of the Peaks to Points Festival.

Brisbane Entomologist Tim Heard has been keeping Australian native stingless bees for more than 20 years. He transferred his first hive from a cut down tree into a wooden box in 1985. Tim now keeps more than 250 hives around south east Queensland, obtained by rescuing threatened wild hives and splitting existing hives.

Tim will speak at a workshop about keeping native stingless bees at Oxley Creek Common on Sunday 16 September from 9am to 3pm at Oxley Creek Common, as part of the Peaks to Points Festival. The event is being hosted by Wolston and Centenary Catchments.

Sugarbag is honey made by Australian native stingless bees. Stingless bees store honey (and pollen) in their nests as food sources when times are tough. Sugarbag was a highly prized food of Aborigines who hunted it from wild nests.

Tim has recently developed new hive designs that allow for sustainable extraction of honey, without harming the colony. Only tiny amounts of sugarbag are produced – less than 1kg per hive per year, so it’s a special product, to be savoured and relished.

Lynn Whitfield | Festival Chairperson

The program for the Peaks to Points Festival now includes activities as diverse as local history walks, orienteering and a workshop about keeping native bees. Thanks to all those community and environment groups who have committed to hosting an activity!

Family Day on 2 September at Oxley Creek Common is also shaping up to be a fantastic day, with stage performances, hands-on activities for children, canoeing, and displays by a number of local groups, including Zero Carbon Australia and Queensland Parks and Wildlife.

This year Peaks to Points coincides with a number of major environmental dates, including Wattle Day, National Landcare Week and National Threatened Species Day. Our aim is to collaborate with as many organisations and activities as possible, to raise awareness about environmental issues and give people practical information about how they can preserve and protect their part of Australia.

If you haven’t already done so, please ‘like’ our Festival page on  Facebook (PeakstoPointsFestival) and help us spread the word about our wonderful event.  Also feel free to post a comment about our festival on our website.