Spring School Holidays on the Sunshine Coast: Baby Goats, the New G.O.A.T. Playbarn and the Famous Spring Festival

We have fifteen miniature goat kids at Fairhill this spring, and every one of them wants a bottle at the same time each morning. That is more small mouths than our Rangers have hands, which is why we are putting the call out: if your family is looking for things to do these school holidays on the Sunshine Coast, we could use some help with the feeding.

The timing could not be better. The gardens are waking up all at once, with wattle and grevillea in flower, the ducks free-ranging and the turtles back in the sun. And this coming weekend the biggest month of our year begins: a brand new home for the goat kids, the return of a festival that Sunshine Coast families remember from years gone by, and seventeen days of school holiday adventures behind it. Here is how it all fits together.

The new G.O.A.T. Playbarn opens Saturday 19 September

The G.O.A.T. Playbarn is the new home of our miniature goat kids: a play space built around them, with plenty of shaded indoor room for cuddles and bottle feeding whatever the weather is doing outside. The name carries two meanings of Greatest Of All Time. One is the little goats themselves, who have become Sunshine Coast personalities in their own right, with families travelling for hours to meet them after following their adventures online. The other is the kind of free, active, imaginative country play that childhood memories are made of.

The Playbarn officially opens at 8.30am on Saturday 19 September, as the opening highlight of the Spring Festival weekend, and from then on it is open every day with the rest of the farmyard.

Members see it first: Friday 18 September, 4pm to 6pm

Friends of Fairhill Members get the Playbarn to themselves the afternoon before it opens to everyone. Come along any time between 4pm and 6pm on Friday 18 September for drinks, baby goat cuddles and bottle feeding. If you are a Member, please register for the Preview Evening so we know how many to expect. If you are not yet a Member, joining before Friday gets you in.

The Famous Fairhill Spring Festival: Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 September

The Spring Festival once brought generations of Sunshine Coast families together, and this year it is back, woven through the gardens the way it always was. Both days run from 8am to 4pm. Come dressed as fairies, sprites, elves, good witches and other friendly woodland folk if you like: there are prizes for children, grown-ups and well-behaved pups in costume. Add the Local Makers' Marketplace, the Goats' Promenade, and the whole estate in flower, and it makes for a full weekend.

The programme, both days

• 8am: Gates open, both days.
• 8.30am Saturday: The G.O.A.T. Playbarn officially opens, the opening highlight of the festival. Baby mini goats to bottle feed and cuddle all morning.
• 9.30am: Hold baby chicks, feed the guinea pigs and join the egg collecting expeditions.
• 11.30am: The Goats' Promenade down to Turtle Lake.
• All morning: The Local Makers' Marketplace, speakers and stalls.
• 12.30pm and 3.30pm: Bottle feeding and cuddle time with the baby mini goats.
• All day: Little Sprouts imaginative indoor play, Spring Treasure Hunts, the Little Dig Zone, the Pets' Paddock and more.
• Sunday only: The Garden Pause, one-on-one head massage in the gardens with Maria Kelly, and at 3pm, Sunday Fairy Tales under the Tree of Forgetfulness to round off the weekend.

Entry to the festival is with a Day Pass or a Membership, and booking ahead is recommended. Dogs on leads are welcome. The full details are on the Spring Festival page.

Seventeen days of school holiday adventures

The festival is only the start. The Queensland spring school holidays run from Saturday 19 September right through to the King's Birthday long weekend, finishing on Monday 5 October, and every one of those seventeen days has a changing programme of Ranger-led Adventures across the farmyard:

• Miniature goat encounters, bottle feeding and baby goat cuddles in the new G.O.A.T. Playbarn
• Newly hatched chicks to hold
• Guinea pig teatime
• Hobby horse gymkhanas
• Nature discoveries and outdoor exploring with the Rangers
• The Forest Fairy Trail and Turtle Lake: follow the clues, test your farmyard knowledge and win prizes
• Little Sprouts, our imaginative indoor play space for crawling, climbing and sliding

For families weighing up school holiday activities on the Sunshine Coast, the appeal is that nobody has to plan every hour. Children can cuddle a goat, follow a forest trail, dig, build, climb, play indoors and out and meet the wildlife along the way, while the grown-ups have a proper day of it too, with the Gardens Café and the nursery at hand. The day-by-day programme is on the school holidays page.

The Spring Equinox Bonfire: Wednesday 23 September

The Spring Equinox, when day and night share the hours equally, falls on Wednesday 23 September, right in the middle of the holidays. We mark it with a bonfire in the gardens. The lighting is at 2.30pm: come and burn away your troubles and welcome an even brighter future, with marshmallow toasting at the fire afterwards. The gardens are open all day from 8am, so make a day of it. Details on the Equinox Bonfire page.

Come once, or come every day of spring

Spring Adventures and the Spring Festival are included with a Fairhill Day Pass or Membership. Entry to the Gardens Café, Country Store and Nursery is always free, so a coffee, a browse of the store or a plant run needs no ticket at all. A Membership means the goat kids, the gardens and the farmyard whenever you like, all spring long, and you can pause or cancel any time.

While you are here, the nursery is full to the brim for spring: grafted grevilleas, dwarf flowering gums, ground covers, bird and bee attracting varieties in flower now or soon, herbs, and a privacy and screening section that grows every week. Walk the rows, ask the team what will thrive at yours, and take home something that will still be flowering long after the holidays are over.

Fifteen baby goats, one new barn, and seventeen days to fill. We hope to see you in the gardens this spring.