When Mohammed Kazi and his wife bought a block of land in the new Ellarook estate in Truganina in 2017, the advertised plans for a future primary school and railway station were major selling points.
Six years on, the couple – now living in the estate with two preschool-aged children – feel shortchanged.
Mohammed Kazi bought land near a proposed primary school in Truganina, but plans for the school were cancelled six years later.Credit:Scott McNaughton
The school in question, “Forsyth Creek Proposed P6”, was first earmarked 10 years ago but looks dead after the Andrews government abandoned plans to acquire the land for it.
“There were two things promised: it would be walking distance to school and a train station. There is no news of the train station and the school is just completely gone now,” Kazi said.
The Education Department confirmed in a letter to Wyndham City that it no longer planned to acquire the site it had previously set aside for a school, instructing the council to alter its plans “to develop the site for other appropriate uses”.
It has opted instead to expand the capacity of another planned school in a different part of Truganina, one of Melbourne’s fastest-growing suburbs.
Wyndham councillor Josh Gilligan accused the department of implicitly inviting the council to sell the school site to developers for more housing.
“It’s gobsmacking for the Department of Education to say, not only will we take away your future school, we will suggest the removal of planning protections that will mean housing will go on it,” Gilligan said.
Gilligan moved at a meeting on Tuesday night that the council fight the Andrews government’s decision not to build a school at the Ellarook estate, running a public campaign and writing to households about the “adverse outcomes” the decision would have for education in the area.
The motion said high numbers of portables were being installed in schools across Wyndham as the area’s school-aged population outstripped planning projections.
The vacant site in Ellarook that was until recently set aside for a future public primary school.Credit:Scott McNaughton
“The encroachment of open space for kids to play sports, in favour of more and more portables is all we need to know about the department’s inability to accurately project the demand for school places across sites,” it said.
The motion was deferred until next month to give the department more time to provide Wyndham the data justifying its decision.
But Gilligan said he suspected the decision was driven by the parlous condition of the state budget.
“They are gaslighting people in the outer west,” he said. “There is too much housing, it is poorly designed and for the government to say, ‘you can have a bit more housing and we will take away your school’ is outrageous.”
The City of Wyndham already has the most overcrowded schools in Victoria.
Previous research for the council found the municipality had an average of 983 students in each of its 37 government schools, by far the highest number in the state.
The average across greater Melbourne is 554, according to the research.
The Education Department wrote a letter to Wyndham that was delivered before Christmas last year but only made public this week, saying the Ellarook school site was no longer needed because it had instead expanded the capacity at a different site set aside for a future primary and secondary school nearby.
Education Minister Natalie Hutchins said the government was building 21 new schools in Wyndham, the most of any local government area in Australia.
“In 2021, we purchased a larger site for schools, the Truganina North education precinct, which is on track to open next year,” Hutchins said.
Rishi Dave and his family also moved into the Ellarook estate in the knowledge that a primary school had been proposed just two minutes’ walk from their new home.
“When we were planning to buy a house, we had children or a child in mind, so we were always thinking, let’s move into a place where we will have good access to schools,” Dave said.
Ellarook’s website is out of date and still refers to a “future on-site primary school” in the corner of the estate in colourful maps designed to entice homebuyers.
Dave said he constantly wondered what would be built on the vacant blocks across the road.
“With all the new houses and the amount of construction happening, there will be many families that will need access to childcare or a primary school.”
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