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QATSIF Continues To Support Young Indigenous Students In Forest Lake & Other Queensland Schools To Finish High School

A good number of young indigenous students in Queensland are getting a good chance of completing their high school senior years, thanks to the help of The Queensland Aboriginal And Torress Strait Island Foundation (QATSIF) scholarship program.

Forest Lake’s Success Story

One of the success stories come from Forest Lake. Student and scholarship recipient Lucina Colbert graduated from Forest Lake College last year. She was also Queensland’s top performing Aboriginal and Torres Strait student.

The Scholarship

The organisation has delivered scholarships to 1,045 students in Queensland since 2010 to support Year 11 and 12 studies. Scholarship recipients are given $1,000 a year on their final two years of high school.

QATSIF aims to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait island student retention in Years 11 and 12. The funding is also used to build on existing school community programs and support for individual students.

Get Funded

The secretariat director of the organisation, Michael Nayer, has also invited parents who attended the recent scholarship grants ceremony this year at the Australian Catholic University to apply for the 10th round of scholarships in mid-June.

Families can approach their schools to apply for these scholarships.

Forest Lake Residents Appeal for More Cops

Forest Lake residents have started another petition to deploy more cops in their suburb. The petition calls for an increase in the number of police officers in the area especially in the early morning and early mid-afternoon.

The demand for more local police officers is brought by the increase in crimes happening in the suburb. During the last Community Crime Watch meeting, a local police officer said that there were only two police cars patrolling the suburb after 8:00 p.m.

The petition has so far garnered over 300 signatures.

Currently, there is no stand-alone station in the area. The two police officers that patrol the suburb at night are from the Inala Police Station, the largest in the South Brisbane District.

Coffee With a Cop

In light of the residents’ concerns, they are encouraged to join the Coffee With A Cop on 10 March at Simple Bliss, which will start at 9:30 a.m. This is the perfect opportunity to discuss their concerns and for the police to hear them out.

Crime Hotspot

From June-August 2017, the suburb had reports of serious assault and break and enters between 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

In March 2017, statistics from the QPS Crime Map show Forest Lake on the second spot on the list of the biggest burglary hotspots in Brisbane’s South.

Termite Infestation May Get Worse Due to Humid Weather In Forest Lake & Other Suburbs in Southeast Queensland

The humid weather in southeast Queensland has given rise to more termite infestations. In particular, Gold Coast houses have found an increasing number of termite infestations. Amongst the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Forest Lake is one of the places with identified infestations.

Termites thrive in the summer. However, as the weather has gotten more humid throughout the year, termite infestations have become present all-year long. Plenty of homeowners in Forest Lake and the surrounding suburbs have dealt with termites in their properties. Termite control and eradication can be very expensive. In some extreme cases, people have had to rebuild their homes.

Forest Lake’s close proximity to bushland and the prevalence of large gum trees become more susceptible to termite attacks. In fact, termite nests can easily be spotted in the trees on almost every block of the suburb.

Early detection is very important. Residents are advised to keep an eye out for cracks in walls and termite mud. Pest controllers are urging residents to have regular termite inspections. They recommend inspections every six months.

To report an issue to the Brisbane City Council, click here.

Forest Lake Anglers Eager To Catch More Pest Fish

The existing fish ban in Forest Lake was lifted for the Chillout Fishing Event last 6 January. Now, anglers are more zealous to catch pest fish inhabiting the lake following the number of pest fish that were caught during the event.

The Chill Out Event is for 10-17 years old that helps them learn to tie fishing knots, bait hooks, cast a rod and hook up fish with two bent rods. They will be fishing for pest fish whilst native fish caught will be released. The program is fully funded by the Brisbane City Council’s Health & Active Program – Chill Out and is one of Brisbane’s most popular youth programs offering free and low-cost recreation activities for young people.

Over 100 pest fish were caught during the youth workshop. The species identified as pest fish inhabiting the lake are:

Tilapia
Carp
Barred grunters
Eel-tailed catfish

The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries identifies these species as noxious fish. These species must not be released into Queensland waters or be used as bait. After they are caught, they must be killed and not returned to the water.

Today, fishermen are willing to catch pest fish in the lake and are asking for opportunities to do so. Cr Charles Strunk responded to their pleas and said that he would advocate for more events like this.

Matthew Bourke, Brisbane Lifestyle and Community Services chairman said that they are open to exploring opportunities to involve the community in keeping Brisbane clean and safe. However, the Brisbane City Council hasn’t committed to a regular fishing event at the suburb or lifting fishing bans across the region.

For now, pest fish sightings can be reported here.

Forest Lake Has the Most Dogs in the City

Who doesn’t love dogs? A whole lot of people in Brisbane, it seems,as it is home to over 100,000 registered dogs. And the city’s top choice of breed? A labrador retriever!

The Brisbane City Council’s latest dog registration data shows that there are 9,195 registered labrador retrievers in the area, making it the city’s most popular dog. Other popular dog breeds include Maltese, Staffordshire bull terrier, poodle, and border collie.

Dogs such as dachshunds, pugs and French bulldogs are also popular in the city. Forest Lake shows that residents here have mostly owned dachshunds, with record showing 56, whilst there are 26 pugs registered in Bracken Ridge, and 22 French bulldogs in Morningside.

Still, the data reveals that the Brisbane suburb most populated by dogs is Forest Lake with 2,450 registered dogs.

Rank	Suburb	No. of dogs
1	Forest Lake	2450
2	Bracken Ridge	2342
3	The Gap	1920
4	Carindale	1690
5	Ashgrove	1493
6	Camp Hill	1438
7	Manly West	1427
8	Brighton	1426
9	Wynnum West	1313
10	Wavell Heights	1261

There are 25 suburbs where residents are living among more than 1k dogs.

On the other hand, suburbs with the least number of dogs are Moreton Island (1), Eagle Farm (1), Enoggera Reservoir (2), Karawatha (4), Kooringal (4), Lake Manchester (1), and Lytton (3).

The council continues to encourage the community to register their dogs as it is also under state government law. Dogs three months of age must be registered and you can check out the fees here.

A Giving Heart and An Open Home in Forest Lake For the Lonely & Alone on Christmas Day

Christmas is a time of giving and a Forest Lake resident made sure that she gives more than she receives.

Ms Elizabeth Ferguson first posted on the Forest Lake community page weeks before Christmas looking for strangers to have lunch with on Christmas day. She specifically posted that she’s looking for someone “who has nowhere to go and might not be able to have a nice X’mas lunch due to finances.”

The lunch will be for four adults in their 60s and 80s. Her kids couldn’t come for Christmas lunch so she was left with two empty seats. However, she thought that no one would come having no response for a few weeks but at the last minute, two adults turned up, one from Spring Lake and the other from Forest Lake.

Ms Ferguson was very happy to have the empty seats filled and the fact that she has gotten to know these strangers more.

According to her, she always wanted to open her home to the less fortunate and lonely but her family discouraged her in the past. This also comes from her parents dying many years ago and how she would always feel sad during Christmas day.

Next year, she plans to start a register to connect people spending Christmas alone with families willing to open her homes.

Forest Lake Action Group Adamant To Fight For Their Suburb Against High Density Residential Developments

Forest Lake residents have formed a group opposing several housing developments in various areas within the suburb.

The group is called FLAG, which stands for Forest Lake Action Group and they are taking action towards property developments within the area which they consider to be “unsuitable.” These developments are:

150 Lovat St., Ellen Grove – 41 Townhouses
35 Roxwell St. Ellen Grove – 44 Townhouses
50 Crossacres St. Doolandella – 94 Townhouses

The group consists of real estate agents, solicitors and residents who are urging the Brisbane City Council to refuse the approval of these developments. The group believes that their suburb deserves better than these high-density developments.

For instance, traffic congestion is getting worse on streets with recently completed townhouses such as the one on Roxwell St. To add insult to injury, the suburb is also tackling issues about illegal dumping, further adding a burden on already congested streets.

Cr Charles Strunk shares the same sentiments as the residents of Forest Lake and said that the council should put more thought into the level of high-density developments in the suburb.

On the other hand, responding to the negative feedback, the council has requested the Ellen Grove development on Lovat St. to be reduced from 41 townhouses to 36. However, the group does not think this is enough and said that even if it gets reduced to 36, it still doesn’t comply with the Brisbane City Plan 2014 and the Local Government Infrastructure Plan, which cites that Lovat St. is an emerging community zone that only allows 18.8 dwellings per net developable hectare.

Another concern of the residents is the sewerage capacity which may not be able to accommodate increased density dwellings. However, the residents are concerned about sufficiency of sewerage capacity, despite assurances from Queensland Urban Utilities.

Forest Lake Prepares for Upcoming parkrun

Forest Lake will soon be welcoming the iconic fitness and community-building initiative, parkrun.

Runners from Forest Lake have met with a parkrun representation this month to talk about a potential track. It is a 5km route that would follow a bush track behind St John’s Anglican College from the oval on Forest Lake Boulevard to the end of Blunder Rd.

However, the ambassador for the event, Kristen McGuire said that nothing has been made official yet but she is confident that an event will push through early next year.

parkrun organises free and weekly 5km timed runs all over the world. It is open for everyone plus it’s free! All people of every ability are encouraged to be a part of this event and it aims to hold an event in every community that wants one. They have already hosted over 30,000 events in 260 locations all over the world.

Tim Oberg, the person responsible for bringing this to Australia met parkrun founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt in 2010 in Wimbledon, where Tim asked Paul if he could bring the parkrun concept Down Under. Not long after that, he was given the go-signal, and that’s when it all started. In 2011, parkrun was officially launched in Australia.

Forest Lake Parklands Masterplan Revealed; Park To See Huge Upgrades

Situated in the heart of Forest Lake in Brisbane, Lake Parklands is one of the best places to go to if you want to get a taste of Queensland’s wildlife and take in the beauty of mother nature. Just recently, Cr Charles Strunk revealed the masterplan for a revitalised Lake Parklands area.

Following an election promise, Cr Strunk guarantees that he will restore the area. The $50,000 masterplan will be signed off by the end of 2017. The plan includes an ampitheatre at the lake stage to host council movie nights, bands and other events. There will also be an exercise park near the lake boat ramp.

Large areas would also undergo re-turfing along with the installation of new seating and barbecues in several locations. Rotundas will also be restored.

Cr Strunk held a public consultation meeting with the residents and said that all their feedback was being considered before the final draft is adopted.

Forest Lake Child Care Centre Chosen To Test Out the STEM Program Next Year

A new $6 million STEM program will be piloted at 100 preschools in Australia in 2018. The Forest Lake Child Care Centre is one of the preschools that has been selected to take advantage of the program.

The child care centre is committed to introducing preschoolers to new and exciting learning opportunities. The first app will introduce the concepts of sorting, ordering and patterns through activities such as making decorations. The program will begin next year.

Having been selected for the program, the preschool will receive free workshops and be the first to use ELSA apps and resources to incorporate STEM practices into their preschool program. The practices include exploring locations, patterns, making, spatial reasoning and designing.

Even if these activities are based through applications, this program or way of teaching doesn’t mean children will be indiscriminately exposed to technology. In fact, STEM is in action through physical activities, making children future thinkers in an active way.

The 100 selected preschools were selected based on geographical locations and socio-economic backgrounds. This program will include six apps, with four apps focused on playful learning experiences. Children under the program should bring their own devices to school.