A growing NSW town, a $71m unbuilt high school and the ‘absolute epitome of short-term politics’

In 2020, when then New South Wales deputy premier and member for Monaro, John Barilaro, announced the site for a new $71m high school in the middle of a regional town’s heritage precinct, he conceded the location would come as a “surprise” to residents.

And it did. It was announced a new high school would be built by January 2023 on the site of the only park in Bungendore – 30 minutes’ drive east of Canberra – requiring the demolition of its pool, community centre and council offices. The school would deal with the area’s projected population growth and shorten the commute of students, some of whom faced more than two hours’ travel a day.

Three years later, the school has not been built, and the plans, which have been dismissed by one group of education department experts as “unworkable”, are the subject of legal action. Meanwhile, year 7 and 8 students are learning in a makeshift $3m demountable set up in the grounds of the primary school, powered by a diesel generator.

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Stuart Gregory, a spokesperson for Save Bungendore Park, says it has received no adequate explanation from the government as to why multiple other sites were excluded. He says the whole ordeal is the “absolute epitome of short-term politics”.

“The temporary school should never have been opened, the new site is not going to meet demand … they’re prioritising what they think is the quickest and easiest option … and it’s going to get kicked down in court,” he says.

A ‘completely inappropriate’ site

Both major parties have been promising the historic town of Bungendore a high school for more than a decade.

It’s part of the fastest-growing area in regional NSW, with about 1,000 primary and secondary-aged students, according to 2021 Australian Bureau of Statistics data. Almost 30% of the town is under the age of 20.

The site was first announced by then-education minister Sarah Mitchell and Barilaro in August 2020, with the opening of the school set to occur shortly before the next state election in 2023.

At the time, Barilaro conceded the location wasn’t the “cheapest site” but was the “right site in relation to getting a school built in the timeline that we’ve committed to”.

Carolyn Cole, spokesperson for the Save Bungendore Park movement, says members were all in “disbelief” at the government’s actions. “You could see standing there it was completely inappropriate,” she says.

The Queanbeyan-Palerang regional council has not committed to a timeframe for when the community infrastructure that will need to be demolished, including the pool, will be replaced.

Internal Department of Education documents released under freedom of information laws show discussion to pick a private, vacant site close to the existing primary school was overturned months later in favour of the Bungendore park site, despite meeting only nine of 21 detailed selection criteria.

The department told Guardian Australia that the other sites lacked the availability of essential infrastructure or were subject to environmental constraints like bushfire and floods.

More than 300 formal objections were lodged, spanning lack of transparency to traffic concerns, loss of parkland, and amenity and contamination issues.

In addition to the concerns about the loss of community facilities, in April this year, the NSW Environmental Protection Authority said the rail corridor adjacent to the chosen site was significantly contaminated by lead and arsenic at levels high enough to warrant an investigation.

Its report said the use of adjoining land for a school may “increase the risk of harm caused by contaminants”.

The Department of Education says its own soil and dust testing indicates the site is suitable for school use.

This week, Save Bungendore Park failed to reach agreement via mediation in the land and environment court with the education and planning departments to have the proposal quashed.

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It claims the development consent is invalid as the compulsorily acquired site is crown land but the relevant minister for crown land didn’t give the required permission for it to change hands.

The group is preparing expert witness reports for a court hearing in mid-July.

Meanwhile, the council is suing the Department of Education for compensation payable for the compulsory acquisition of the crown land, a matter also currently before the land and environment court.

A council spokesperson says a high school is important but the proposed location “didn’t deliver the best outcome for the community”.

The Department of Education says it compensated the council for the replacement of facilities as determined by the NSW valuer general and council was “best placed” to advise on rebuilding plans.

The council valued the land at $14.6m, while the valuer general placed it at $10.8m. Ninety per cent has been paid out while the dispute is argued – the rest has been withheld pending the court outcome, scheduled for late June.

‘Division in a small community’

The recently re-elected local Labor member Steve Whan told voters before the state election he would consider pushing for an inquiry.

“This has created a division in a small community, which I think is probably the worst I’ve seen in this region,” the Monaro MP says.

“My concern about this is not so much that we’re going to be able to change where we’re at, at the moment – it’s hard to turn back the clock – but that we make sure that future projects don’t have this sort of disjoint that’s occurred with the community.”

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The current deputy premier and education minister, Prue Car, says the community has “waited long enough” for its own school and “she does not wish to see any further unnecessary delays”.

“I understand the community’s frustration. We will continue to work constructively to deliver the school as soon as possible.”

It’s little comfort for the Bungendore High School Action Group – a group of parents and grandparents who achieved bipartisan commitment for a high school prior to the 2019 election.

It says families are leaving the community due to continued uncertainty over planning timelines.

With students in disparate schools spread across the region, the commute can be more than two hours a day.

“We’re devastated to learn our local children will miss a term one start in 2024 in a permanent high school,” a spokesperson says.

“Our community families have been lobbying for a high school for decades … they’re getting fed up with the continuing uncertainty and a project that seems to have stalled.

“Until this school is built in its permanent location, our local children and their teachers will continue to be impacted.”