Secret Farm Tours: A New Kind of Family Day Out on the Sunshine Coast

There is a version of Fairhill that visitors almost never see. The gates are shut, the car park is empty, the mist is still sitting on the gardens, and down at the Kids' Barn the baby goats are waiting for their breakfast. Until now, that hour has belonged to our rangers alone. Our new Secret Farm Tours hand it to your family instead.

If you keep a list of things to do with kids on the Sunshine Coast, this one is a little different: a private, small-group session behind the scenes of the farmyard, either before we open or after everyone else has gone home.

7am: breakfast at the barn

The morning tour starts at 7am, a full hour before the gates open. Your family arrives to a quiet farm, meets your own ranger, and heads to the Kids' Barn while the animals are at their hungriest and most delighted to see you. The ranger hands out the milk bottles, shows everyone how to feed, and stays with you the whole time. For early-rising little ones, being up first and feeding baby goats before breakfast feels like a proper adventure, and you are done in time for a well-earned morning tea at the café once the gardens open at 8am.

5pm: the dinner feed

The evening tour runs at 5pm, an hour after the last visitors have gone home. This is the settling-down feed, the one that tucks the farmyard in for the night. The light goes soft and golden over Ninderry, the barn goes calm, and your children get the baby goats entirely to themselves for their dinner bottles. If your family has a dawdler who never wants to leave the animals, this is the session for them.

What your family actually gets

Every Secret Farm Tour is a private booking: your own ranger, the Kids' Barn to yourselves, and all our baby goats ready for their breakfast or their dinner. Tours run daily and take up to six children, plus the accompanying adults, at $250 per private booking. That makes it an easy fit for one family, two families together, a grandparents-and-cousins morning, or a birthday treat with a difference. Full details and booking are on the Secret Farm Tours page. We ask for at least 24 hours notice, and a tour request does not hold your session: one of the team checks the diary and confirms with you by reply.

How it differs from a regular Fairhill day

A regular day at Fairhill is already full of animals. Our ranger-led Farmyard Adventures are included with entry and run every morning:

• 8.30am: Good morning to the Bantam Pekins and Silkies, and the Junior Chicken Keeper sticker for those who earn it.
• 9.30am and 10.30am: The Cheeky Chicks Show, the Guinea Pigs Tea Party and the egg collecting expedition.
• 11.30am: The Goat Walkabout: walk the mini goats on their promenade to Turtle Lake, feed the ducks, and come back through the gardens.
• 12.30pm: The Kids' Barn, for cuddle time with the baby miniature pygmy goat kids and their bottle feeding.

Those sessions are shared with the other families visiting that day, which is part of the fun of them. The Secret Farm Tours sit either side of all that: private, quieter, and at the two times of day when the farm is at its most magical. Plenty of families will do both, a Secret Farm Tour at 7am and then a slow day through the gardens, the Forest Fairy Trail and the daily sessions, with lunch at the café before food service finishes at 2pm. And if you are planning a birthday, our children's parties pair beautifully with an evening feed.

For a family day out on the Sunshine Coast, it is hard to picture a better start or finish than a barn full of baby goats and a child holding a milk bottle, taking their job very seriously.