CSDE Emerald receives commitment from Qld Education to reopen its on-site camping

A Central Queensland distance education community has a spark of hope after fighting to get its on-site facilities back for 18-months after they were shut down by the Queensland Department of Education. Here’s what it means for students.

A Central Queensland school serving rural families is expected to have its community reunited within 12 months following a commitment from Queensland Education to reopen its onsite accommodation facilities.

Students and families of Capricornia School of Distance Education Emerald campus were using two purpose-built short-term camping facilities at Emerald, known as The Outstation and The Shed, until February, 2020, when the Department of Education kicked them out.

Facilities were also impacted at Longreach.

About 60-80 people, including parents and students, would use the free facilities as a base when travelling to Emerald from their remote properties, for one week of mini-school once a term, providing children to attend ‘normal’ school and socialise while parents networked.

But, since the facilities were closed, families have been forced to spend about $1200 on accommodation and make their own arrangements if wishing to attend the once-a-term event, with many opting to avoid the mini-schools and social opportunities to save the cost.

The department engaged Lambert and Rehbein to lead the scoping and costing of works required to reinstate overnight accommodation at Capricornia SDE and Longreach SDE, with site visits carried out last week.

P & C Secretary Elizabeth Burnett says the school community is “overjoyed” following the successful meeting between parents, P & C members and representatives from the department on Tuesday, September 7.

“I think all of us were really shocked because we were so used to delays,” she said.

Students miss socialising at the Emerald campus mini-school event.

Department representatives gathered information on why the facilities were so important to the school community, and informed the P & C that safety upgrades would be carried out to ensure it would be fit for its main purpose of being used as a short term camping facility.

Mrs Burnett said the engineers would work to develop a design and plan, ahead of a four to six week time frame for the project to be put to tender.

She said they were told families would be back in the facility within 12 months, more than two years after the facilities were closed.

Mrs Burnett, who lives on a cattle property about 70km west of Clermont with her three children, Sophie, 8, Phoebe, 6 and Ben, 6 months, said the move to close the facilities had burdened families financially and mentally after the loss of networking opportunities and peer social support.

“We’re just overjoyed that we’ll get [the sheds] back,” she said.

“The school community is disjointed. Mums and home tutors are really suffering socially and it really is affecting the social wellbeing of people.

“Our once close knit community is becoming more and more isolated because of this.”

The two on-site sheds have been camped in by school families for 23 years and were built through $114,000 of direct donations, grants and fundraising efforts by the school community, and $40,000 from the Department of Education.

While being majority owners of the facilities, Mrs Burnett said the P & C was fighting for a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to be established before the works started to ensure it could remain involved in the ongoing process.

The two on-site camping facilities were closed in February, 2020.

“Our biggest fear, we could’ve never been prepared for, is that these facilities could be closed down or put at risk in any way, because the investment of family money was always encouraged and supported by the department for the facilities,” she said.

“We never thought this kind of thing [facility closure] would happen and the JDA would stop it from happening again.

“We just need to make sure it’s protected for the future. You want to protect the investment, the historical investment and the ongoing investment.”

A Department of Education spokeswoman said the sites were initially closed due to not meeting safety standards.

“The safety and wellbeing of students and staff in Queensland schools is of the highest priority for the Department of Education and no apologies are made for doing everything possible to protect staff, students and school communities,” she said.

“The facilities at Longreach and Capricornia Schools of Distance Education do not meet building and fire safety standards for overnight accommodation, however can be used for day activities.

“Safety and building inspections of these overnight accommodation facilities indicated that upgrades and alterations are required to comply with Class 3 building requirements under the Building Code of Australia/National Construction Code.”

The department will continue working with the P & C’s and the schools to ensure the compliance of the facilities at Capricornia SDE and Longreach SDE.

Mrs Burnett said the most important thing was holding the department to its commitment, to ensure “it’s not just a sweeping statement that doesn’t come to fruition”.

“We really want to keep the momentum of the project moving forward, the sooner families are back camping and the community is restored the better,” she said.

“The P and C Representatives at the Capricornia School of Distance Education in Emerald are grateful to work through the goals and plans to move forward together with the Department to return our camping in The Outstation and The Shed.

“Together with the department we can do great things for the rural students this school encompasses.”