Fifth childcare centre planned for Bellbowire

A leafy Brisbane westside suburb could be getting its fifth childcare centre, significantly increasing competition in the growing area.

Eden Academy is proposing to build what would be the fifth childcare centre at Bellbowrie in Brisbane’s inner west in the latest major commercial project for the growing suburb.

The news comes after Coles opened a new supermarket 3km down the road from its old digs, at floodprone Bellbowrie Shopping Plaza, in June, and after Council opened nearby Moggill District Sports Park in 2019.

Eden Academy ran into controversy with another centre at Boundary Rd, Bardon.

Housing developments in the once rural Moggill/Bellbowrie area, such as Hawkesbury Rise Estate, have steadily pushed up the population.

Many new families have moved in to snap up relatively affordable housing.

A development application for the new childcare centre, at 117 Kangaroo Gully Rd, was lodged recently with Council.

Designed by On Architecture, the two-level centre adjoins well-regarded Moggill State School.

It would be landscaped to screen it from neighbours, but the site is surrounded on three sides by open space.

Aerial view of the site and surrounding streets.

The centre would cater for 100 children, providing significant competition for nearby Mother Duck Child Care, Bellbowrie Early Education Centre, C&K Bellbowrie and Bellbowrie Kindergarten & Preschool.

The 736 sqm facility would have two large outdoor play areas, six activity rooms, a covered outside space and undercroft parking for 20 cars, with access via Kangaroo Gully Rd.

Council rejected one of Eden’s centres near a busy Bardon roundabout in 2019, but Eden later won a court appeal and built the facility.

The proposed layout of the centre.

It has other eight other centres already opened or under construction in Brisbane, including three in the westside.

More details at Council’s online development application portal developmenti. Search for application A005828145 or 117 Kangaroo Gully Rd.