A petition to Brisbane City Council and the YMCA (Y Queensland)

For decades, Acacia Ridge kids have learned to walk, talk, share and play at the little centre on the corner of Mannington Road and Chifley Street. For local families it has been far more than childcare: it's where our kids made their first mates, and where the educators became people we trust with the most important part of our lives.

My daughter Summer attends this centre. It is her second home.

On 19 October, families were told the YMCA Acacia Ridge Early Education Centre will close for good on Friday 18 December 2026.

Closure would break up a settled team of educators. A 75-place centre would stop taking children in January, and families who still need care would be left to find places elsewhere, with no guarantee any centre nearby can take them. Our kids would lose their friends, their routine and the adults who know them by name.

We don't believe closing is the only option.

The centre doesn't need to shut – it needs a new provider. The national register shows the YMCA's Sunshine Coast University Hospital centre was transferred to a new provider on 25 May 2026 and is open today at the same address as Rise Early Learning Birtinya. We understand this site is Brisbane City Council land leased to the YMCA, and we have asked Council to confirm that and whether it can help keep childcare running here.

Early learning is what lets parents work and gives kids the best start. Shutting a 75-place centre rated as Meeting the national standard, on public land, with educators who want to keep working there, deserves a serious look at every alternative first.

We ask Brisbane City Council and the YMCA to urgently work together on a handover that keeps local care going, and in particular to:

— Avoid any extra loss of booked care because of the handover;

— Offer continuing jobs to the educators who want to stay;

— Keep current enrolments, so no family loses its place;

— Keep the centre running under a new provider, whoever that is – and have the YMCA keep the doors open past 18 December if a handover needs more time.

A change of provider usually needs at least 60 days' notice to the Queensland regulator, so this has to start now – not in December.

Sign this petition to tell Brisbane City Council and the YMCA that Acacia Ridge kids deserve to keep their kindy. Then tell us in the comments why this centre matters to your family – your own experience only, please: no children's names, no private details, and no allegations about individuals.