The REIQ recently reported the latest housing market statistics which showed Kedron median house price jumping to $744,500, an increase of 11.1% from the last 12 months and 44.2% over the last 5 years. In the 2nd quarter of 2018, there were 23 homes sold in the suburb.
“In the last quarter, the number of sales was down by 41% on the same time last year. However, demand has remained strong,” says Kedron agent Brooke Copping of Ray White Wilston.
“In my experience, there has been a lot of extra demand to buy 3-bedroom homes in Kedron this year. Most of my open homes have had 15 plus attendees.”
There have been quite a few instances of magpie swooping in Kedron. In particular, a swooping magpie has been spotted at 1 Benelong Street.
In the report sent to Magpie Alert, the magpie made contact with a man walking along 1 Benelong Street on 14 September 2018. Fortunately, the attack did not cause any injury.
Fast Facts About Magpies
The Australian magpie is a native Australian bird that is protected under the State Wildlife Legislation (Nature Conservation Act 1992). It is a serious offence to harm magpies and penalties apply for attempting to harm them.
Photo credit: JJ Harrison/Wikimedia Commons
Understanding how magpies behave can also help you stay safe around them. Here are just a few good-to-know facts about magpies:
Only nine per cent of magpies are aggressive towards people. Magpie attacks usually happen during their breeding season between July and November.
It is important to remember that a magpie becomes aggressive when it is defending its nest. A magpie will only defend its nest within a ‘defence zone’. For pedestrians, this is usually an area within 110m and for cyclists it is 150m.
Not all magpies swoop. Almost all swooping magpies are male ones who are defending their eggs and chicks.
A magpie’s defensive behaviour can range from a non-contact swoop with or without beak snapping, through to pecking, dive-bombing, and sometimes front-on attacks from the ground.
A few attacks are more serious leading to bloodied ears and cheeks or even eye injury. The risk of eye injury means all magpie attacks need to be taken seriously.
With the reported cases of magpie swooping in Kedron, here are some tips to keep yourself safe during the magpie swooping season.
Wear a broad-brimmed hat and sunglasses or shelter under an umbrella to protect your face from swooping magpies. Painting or sticking large ‘eyes’ on the back of your hat can also deter magpies—but this won’t work for cyclists.
If a magpie swoops while you are cycling, it will probably stop swooping if you get off your bike and walk.
Avoid ‘defence zones’ by taking alternative routes during the breeding season.
If you must enter a ‘defence zone’, magpies will be less likely to swoop if they are watched constantly, or if people walk in a close group.
Use signs to warn others of the location of nests and defence zones, particularly in areas used by children and the elderly.
Waving sticks or umbrellas in the air or attaching a brightly coloured flag on a long pole to your bicycle can stop magpies from swooping.
Important reminder: If a magpie that is defending its nest becomes aggressive and a risk to human safety, the magpie may, in some instances, be removed.
Contact your local council to see if they have a removal program. Alternatively, you can search for a nearest licensed magpie relocator from the Yellow Pages. This commercial service usually charge fees, typically paid by the complainant or landowner.
After almost three years of debates, Brisbane City Council has finally adopted the Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan. The updated neighbourhood plan will take effect on 21 September 2018.
The Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan has been through extensive updates. From late 2015, Brisbane City Council worked with the community to update the neighbourhood plan which was originally adopted in 2007 for the suburbs of Ferny Grove and Upper Kedron. The neighbourhood plan also focuses on the area south of Cedar Creek.
The DA involves a proposal for the Cedar Woods project that initially involved the development of 1,349 residential lots. The Council approved the development in December 2014 after reducing the scale to 980 lots.
Community Inputs for the Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan
The Council had considered feedback from the community in the making of the draft neighbourhood plan.
Between November 2015 and December 2016, Council received 600 online survey responses, 330 submissions on a draft strategy document, four information kiosks, four Community Planning Team (CPT) meetings, and direct contact with Council planners by letter, email, and phone.
Members of the CPT were concerned with the preservation of the area’s bushland and at-risk fauna and also considered options for development being located in clusters away from bushfire-prone areas.
The Council’s draft amendment update of the plan was made available for public notification from 1 June to 14 July 2017. On the course of the notification, Council received 685 properly made submissions.
In response to submissions, Council made the following changes to the draft neighbourhood plan:
Reaffirmed our intention to protect and enhance local ecological areas and waterways by replacing the revegetation plan required by the Queensland Government’s conditions of May 2017 with provisions that require future revegetation and rehabilitation of corridors to contribute to local and regional biodiversity values.
Reaffirmed the range of housing types and dwelling unit density preferred in the area through the inclusion of a ‘Cedar Creek south precinct plan’ illustrating the desired outcomes.
Ensured the natural topography of the area is maintained and require site-responsive design for development on steep slopes and at risk of natural hazards.
Ensured the safe development of future homes by including updated bushfire hazard provisions and mapping.
Photo credit: Brisbane City Council
On the other hand, the following components of the draft neighbourhood plan remained unchanged:
Provision of a 40-hectare conservation area along Mt Nebo Road, which recently transferred into public ownership, with a further 51 hectares of rehabilitated ecological and waterway corridors to be transferred to public ownership at no cost to the community in the future.
Minimum lot sizes and preferred dwelling unit densities, to be established through two precincts so that residential lots transition from urban to natural environments.
Support for an efficient transport network and an emergency-access-only connection to Mt Nebo Road.
Mt Nebo Road, Upper Kedron Photo credit: Google Street View
Updated Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan
The Queensland Government advised the Council on 28 May 2018 that the amendment package could be adopted subject to conditions.
The neighbourhood plan has been amended to include:
an emergency services and active transport link connecting the Cedar Creek south precinct to Mt Nebo Road (subject to further detailed transport planning and community consultation) in the road hierarchy overlay map
future bushfire risk mapping provided by the Queensland Government in the bushfire overlay map
a revegetation map (including regional ecosystem types), provided by the Queensland Government, for reference within the bushfire overlay code.
Brisbane City Council formally adopted the updated neighbourhood plan, including Queensland Government conditions, on 28 August 2018.
The Ferny Grove-Upper Kedron Neighbourhood Plan is a legal document that forms part of Brisbane City Plan 2014 (City Plan), to guide future development in the local area.
This year’s Kerbside Collection in Kedron will be happening on 27 August and this is the perfect time to declutter your home!
With less than a week to go, as per Brisbane City Council’s rules, you can now take out your items by the kerb. However, if you’re still having a hard time deciding whether or not you should keep some items, here are some tips to help you decide.
What About All the Clothes That You Never Wear?
Photo credit: TippyTopx
If your closet is full, this is the perfect time to get rid of other clothes especially if you only wear a third of the ones you have in there. This is also a great way to fix your closet.
Your Home Items Don’t Reflect Your Lifestyle
Photo credit: LifeHacker Australia
You have probably bought a lot of stuff just because they’re trendy or you’ve seen a lot of them on social media. There’s nothing wrong with this and we are all guilty of this. However, when reality sets in, you will realise that some of them aren’t really useful. If you haven’t touched any of these items for months, then it only means that you really don’t need them and it’s time to put them inside the box and by the kerb.
If They’re Not Worth Selling, It’s Time It Hits The Kerb
This could be an old appliance or a stained sheet. If you’re thinking of selling these items but realised that you won’t be able to get the price that you want from them or worse, that no one will actually buy them, then don’t store them! Such items will be the perfect addition to this year’s kerb pile. Who knows? Some people may even find a use for it.
To view the council’s acceptable and unacceptable items, click here.
With $4-million funding from the Education Department, Kedron State School is set to get a new three-storey learning centre.
With this new learning centre, Kedron Tree House, the school will be able to increase its capacity as more students are expected to enrol in the school in the coming years.
Aside from the “tree house”, the multi-million allocation will also cover the cost of a covered link between the new building and the school, a new hire building to decant classes, the removal of existing temporary hire buildings on the oval and tennis courts, and the refurbishment of current facilities.
Artist’s impression of the Kedron Tree House. Photo credit: kedronss.eq.edu.au
Initial prep work that will facilitate the construction of the new building has already started in the early weeks of August 2018. Once the proposed design for the Kedron Tree House is approved, full-scale construction is set to begin later in the year.
Preparations for the construction site will include removal of three classrooms at the end of the term. With this, classes will be relocated to a temporary classroom located on the school tennis court and tennis coaching lessons will be conducted at the local tennis courts a short walk from school.
The Kedron Tree House is anticipated to be completed by 2020.
Preparing for 2020
Kedron State School is not the only one getting an upgrade in preparation for 2020. Kedron State High receives $5.1 million funding under the government’s “2020 Ready” Program. The funds will be used to to build a new two-storey learning centre with additional classrooms, a union kitchen, and an industrial kitchen.
Walking along Nelson Street in Kalinga, you will notice a sizeable house that is handsome enough to make you do a double-take. Kedron Lodge, a heritage-listed villa, projects an image and facade as magnificent and imposing as the day it was first built in 1859. The property is an iconic figure in local lore and Queensland history.
Justice Alfred Lutwyche was the first owner of the home. He had John Petrie and Christopher Potter build his home following his new appointment as judge of Queensland’s Supreme Court, which also makes him the first ever judge of the state.
The villa is a two-storey, 20-room property that sits beside Kedron Brook. It was built using sandstone material with distinctive gable roofs and five brick chimneys.
The home was named “Kedron Lodge.” In the early 1890s, the name was further adopted as the name for the locality, subsequently referred to as “Kedron,” by John King.
After the death of Mr Lutwyche, the property was sub-divided. For a long time, it was owned by the Catholic Church. Since then, the site has changed hands, undergone gentrification and is now a private residential property.
According to Domain Group’s latest property reports, Brisbane is one of the capital cities where you can rent the most affordable house or unit in Australia. Current median rent price for units in Brisbane is at $370 per week while units in Sydney and Melbourne are priced at $550 and $410 per week respectively.
Making it to the top of the list of Brisbane’s cheapest suburbs to rent is Grange with a median weekly rent of $295 a week. Others suburbs that followed are Bardon at $305 a week, Gordon Park at $325 a week and Newmarket at $328 a week.
Photo credit: CC-BY/Brisbane City Council/Flickr
When it comes to the choices of rental properties, Brisbane has lots to offer with the number of new residential developments in and around the CBD. According to experts, one of the factors that affected the prices of units in the said suburbs is the number of older apartment buildings in those areas. While the prices of units in suburbs close to the city centre remain competitive, units in other suburbs have reportedly suffered.
In order to compete with newer developments, older buildings with no facilities needed to bring down their prices to increase their demand.
According to Domain Group, rents in Gordon Park fell by three percent over the past year, as did rents in Grange which went down down by 1.7 percent, Newmarket down by 0.8 percent, and Bardon down by 4.7 percent.
When it comes to the current demand for properties in Gordon Park, figures from realestate.com.au show that the suburb currently has a high demand market with 953 visits per property over the last 12 months.
If you want to know other suburbs in Brisbane with the lowest prices for units for rent, here are the 10 cheapest suburbs to rent a unit in Brisbane.
Grange: $295
Strathpine: $300
Bardon: $305
Red Hill: $320
Gordon Park: $325
Newmarket: $328
Camp Hill: $330
Herston: $330
Clayfield: $335
Wooloowin: $335
*Based on median weekly rent data over the past 12 months. Source: Domain Group
In anticipation of a rise in the number of Catholic students in the near future, Queensland Catholic schools such as Mt Alveria College in Kedron have been expanding their infrastructure.
There are currently 304 Catholic schools in Queensland based on Queensland Catholic Education Commission (QCEC). However, recent data shows that these schools may need to expand or the state may need to build more schools due to the projected additional 47,000 Catholic students by 2036.
QCEC, which is the peak body for Catholic schools, is tasked to deal with government funding, but the diocese or religious institutions are responsible for building and expanding schools. Dr Lee-Anne Perry, the executive director of QCEC, said that the government’s decision to include Capital Assistance funding of $45 million every year for three years in this year’s State Budget will help them with the infrastructure needs.
The government also prepares for the influx of students in state schools via their 2020 Ready Program. In the suburb, Kedron State High was also given a $5.1-million funding to build new facilities within the campus. The $250-million program aims to helps state schools in Queensland with their infrastructure needs following the two educational reforms that took place in the past years.
Better Facilities At Mt Alvernia College
In Kedron, Mt Alvernia College has taken on a number of expansions to accommodate more students in the future. It collaborates with the firm m3architecture that has shown interest in supporting Catholic schools with the growing number of students in the state.
Mt Alvernia College’s masterplan commenced in 2011 and by then, the firm was able to complete establishments within the campus such as the la verna building and the la foresta garden.
The master plan centers around the patron saint of flora and fauna, St Francis. It proposed a school based around three gardens. The la foresta garden is also a place where students can learn. It has science labs, economics spaces, and General Learning Areas (GLAs).
Photo credit: http://www.m3architecture.com/
Overall, the project includes 20 classrooms, six laboratories, three home economics spaces, commercial kitchen and cafeteria, administration, a prayer space, a roof terrace, and the community garden.
Photo credit: https://www.designboom.com/
Michael Lavery, the director of the architecture firm also said that they are working with Catholic schools to build newer infrastructure that can accommodate the influx of students in the coming years.
Kedron State High is set to benefit from the State Government’s $250 million budget for the ‘2020 Ready Program.’
The program’ is helping schools across the state to build more infrastructure to accommodate the influx of students come 2020.
Kedron State High will be getting $5.1 million in funds, which will be used to build a new two-storey learning centre with additional classrooms, a union kitchen, and an industrial kitchen.
Other high schools that will receive funds from the ‘2020 Ready Program’ include:
Albany Creek SHS
Alexandra Hills SHS
Beenleigh SHS
Bremer SHS
Bribie Island SHS
Caboolture SHS
Cairns SHS
Cavendish Road SHS
Centenary Heights SHS
Centenary SHS
Chancellor State College
Cleveland District SHS
Coolum SHS
Ferny Grove SHS
Flagstone State Community College
Forest Lake SHS
Glenala SHS
Harristown SHS
Helensvale SHS
Highfields State Secondary College
Indooroopilly SHS
Ipswich State High School
James Nash SHS
Kawana Waters State College
Kedron SHS
Kelvin Grove State College
Laidley SHS
Lowood SHS
Mackay Northern Beaches SHS
Mansfield SHS
Maroochydore SHS
Marsden SHS
Meridan State College
Mount Gravatt SHS
Mountain Creek SHS
North Lakes State College
Ormeau Woods SHS
Pacific Pines SHS
Palm Beach-Currumbin SHS
Park Ridge SHS
Pimlico SHS
Pimpama State Secondary College
Proserpine SHS
Rochedale SHS
Southport SHS
Springfield Central SHS
Stretton State College
Sunshine Beach SHS
Tamborine Mountain SHS
The Gap SHS
Toolooa SHS
Trinity Bay SHS
Varsity College
Windaroo Valley SHS
Wynnum SHS
Yeppoon SHS
Education Minister Grace Grace said that the funds will accommodate additional students in the state’s high schools in 2020 following the two education reforms that took place in the past years.
“This funding is a major boost and it will mean more than $470 million has been invested by this Government over the period 2017-18 to 2019-20 to increase the capacity of our state secondary schools,” she said.
Kedron is home to a number of cafes and restaurants serving tasty and Instagram-worthy dishes that are sure to brighten up your day. While breakfast is considered as the most important meal of the day, most people don’t have the time to prepare a hearty meal early in the morning. Good thing is, you can kickstart your day with healthy and delicious breakfast meals from these top breakfast places in Kedron.
One of the most visited breakfast stops in Kedron, Nana & Da’s is a popular pet-friendly cafe serving homestyle food. The cafe has an outdoor dining area where pet lovers can enjoy dining with their furry friends.
Their freshly brewed coffee is a local favourite paired with a vast offering from their breakfast menu.
Photo credit: Facebook/Nana & Da’s
You can also indulge in this decadent apple crumble pancakes with slow-cooked cinnamon apples that is sure to satisfy your sweet cravings in the morning.
Nana & Da’s is open daily from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and they serve dinner from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Fridays.
Farm House, Kedron is one of the most recommended breakfast places Kedron. The cafe is popular for serving healthy dishes made with ingredients sourced from local and regional fresh food producers and dairy farms.
Try their beautiful and tasty ricotta hot cake or check out their early and all day breakfast menu which includes Breakfast Gnocchi, Crispy Cheese & Potato Cake, and New Farmhouse Summer Bowl.
Photo credit: Facebook/Farm House, Kedron
Farm House, Kedron is open from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. seven days a week. To learn more, visit their website and their Facebook page.
Another local favourite, Fuzzy Duck features a vibrant, quirky cafe located on the busy Kitchener Road. The family-owned cafe is known for their good food and laid-back atmosphere.
Photo credit: Facebook/Fuzzy Duck
Have a taste of their Instagram-worthy Breakfast Panna Cotta and check out their selection of all-day brunch menu.
Photo credit: Facebook/Fuzzy Duck
Fuzzy Duck is open from Mondays to Fridays, 6:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and until 3:00 p.m. on weekends. Visit their website or Facebook page to learn more.
