The Queensland government has bought land to build a new high school in Greenbank after months of campaigning by local opposition MPs.
A new high school is needed to keep up with population growth and demand due to developments in the Greater Flagstone Priority Development Area, which is expected to house 138,000 people in the next 30-40 years.
This week the government announced it had bought a 9.3-hectare site opposite Everleigh State School on Anderson Drive.
A business case to deliver the new high school, which is expected beyond 2028, will be organised next year, the state government said in a media release.
Nearby schools Park Ridge State High School and Flagstone State Community College are said to have the capacity to meet predicted enrolment numbers until 2029.
Minister for Education John-Paul Langbroek said: “We know this fast-growing area will need a new secondary school in the future, and that’s why we’re planning ahead and purchasing the land.”
“Securing the land now is the financially responsible thing to help keep costs down in the long run.
“While the community continues to grow, we will monitor the pace of residential development, population growth, and enrolment needs.”
Member for Jordan Charis Mullen, who sits on the opposition benches, said Greenbank’s nearest high school was 13 kilometres away at Park Ridge.
“I think for a lot of families, it has been really challenging because it is a bit of a distance for them to get to their local high school,” she said.
“We know many families have been calling for a high school for many years, and we know that the population is at a point now where I think it can be justified.”
The former Labor government pledged to build a secondary school in Greenbank at the 2020 and 2024 elections.
Mrs Mullen and her neighbouring colleague, Member for Logan Linus Power, have continued the cause in opposition.
In 2021, Mrs Mullen received 770 responses to a survey they ran to gauge community interest in the school.
“Linus and I would hear from the community, they would talk to us at mobile offices and we would get emails about it, so we’ve been campaigning for quite a while now,” Mrs Mullen said.
“We made a commitment at the last state election in 2024 that if we had been re-elected as a government, we would have purchased the land.”
In May this year, the west Logan parliamentarians launched a petition calling on the government to buy the Anderson Drive land, which the education department earmarked in 2024.
One month later, more than 850 people had put their name to the cause.
Mr Power said he thought the community’s response was the reason the government had purchased the land.
“When we started the campaign, the minister basically indicated that they had no interest in proceeding with this; it was only the public getting involved that forced them to change their minds,” he said.
“I’m really pleased that so many in the community took the time and effort to sign the petition and also post on Facebook and communicate in other ways that actually.
“Hundreds of local residents in Greenbank and the surrounding areas advocated for purchasing the school site, and it’s a really big step.”
