Two suburbs earmarked for new westside primary school

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has named two suburbs as the likely site for the westside’s first new state primary school in many years.

Taringa State School (middle of the picture) in 1966. A new school in the general area will be built to cater for demand since TSS was closed 30 years after this photo was taken. Picture by Ted Holliday

Chapel Hill or Indooroopilly have been earmarked as the likely site of the first new state primary school in the westside in decades. It will open in 2023.

Taringa State School was closed and the land sold for development in 1996, but since then there has been an explosion in unit projects — massively increasing the population.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Education Minister Grace Grace this morning identified the two suburbs as possible sites for the school, although there will be a public consultation process.

Government splurges more than $300m on new schools

Local state Greens MP, Michael Berkman, who has been campaigning hard for new primary and secondary schools in the area — as has LNP MP for Moggill, Dr Christian Rowan — welcomed the news.

“Our schools have been so severely overcrowded that classrooms are full, pool and library time is limited, before and after-school care services have long wait lists and demountable classrooms are being erected on school ovals, encroaching on students’ play area,’’ Mr Berkman said.

“It’s had real impacts on the wellbeing of students, parents and the local community, so this is a massive win for them.

“Since I was elected I’ve been meeting with local P&Cs, collecting petition signatures, raising this issue in Parliament and working with the Education Minister to secure a new school for the inner west — I’m so excited they’ve listened to the community and will be investing in this crucial infrastructure.

Toowong State School started a quiet zone in its playground. It also encourages younger and older children to share different parts of the small play area. Picture: AAP/Renae Droop

“My office and I have been looking into a number of possible locations for a new school and believe Taringa is the obvious choice, given its population is growing quickly, it’s relatively accessible via public transport, and it still doesn’t have a school.

“Closing the old Taringa State School in 1996 and selling off the land was a huge mistake.

“I’ll be pushing hard for this new school to be built at Taringa, so it can take pressure off all the surrounding schools struggling with overcrowding including Toowong, Indooroopilly and Ironside.”

Ironside State School at St Lucia is so overcrowded it imposed split play times some years ago because there were too many students to safely fit into its outdoor area.

Toowong State School parent Francesca Reddington said her daughter, now in Year 7, was so dismayed at the encroachment of demountables on the small playground that she organised a petition.

Ms Reddington, whose son is in Year 5 at the school, said children had to take turns on the grassed area and a small artificial-grass play area.

“I ran the school fair and one of our challenges was fitting the rides on to the oval once the demountables started being built,’’ she said.

“We put the inflatable (play equipment) in the hall at one point because there was no other room.

“My son is super active so the lack of space is a big problem for him.’’

Ms Reddington said although the school had only about 400 students its land area was small and it had many out-of-catchment students because it was the only primary school in Queensland that had a bilingual/bicultural co-enrolment program using Auslan and English.

Indooroopilly State School mum Jannene Smith said the school had almost doubled in size, to about 1400 students, since her two boys started there in Prep.

Greens MP Michael Berkman at Parliament House. He has welcomed news of a new westside state school after years of campaigning for one. Picture: Liam Kidston

The school recently extended its dangerous drop-off zone and there has been a longrunning campaign for a pedestrian footbridge over Moggill Rd because of the dangers of so many children arriving or leaving on foot.

“There are staggered lunch breaks, particularly since COVID, which has helped with overcrowding,’’ Ms Smith said.

“It didn’t feel so big when we first started, but because they have allowed so much multistorey development there are many more people.

“They didn’t seem to realise families would move in — it’s now acceptable for families to live on the 10th floor of a building where once upon a time families lived in detached housing.’’

Ms Smith said the next battle would be a new state high school as all existing private and public secondary schools in the westside have grown massively in recent years.

Dr Rowan said the new school, while welcome, would not come online until at least 2023 and still didnot address the need right now for additional and enhanced high school infrastructure for families in the western suburbs.

“For the last five years the Palaszczuk State Labor Government has neglected to adequately invest in the critical school infrastructure and education resources that are desperately needed in the western suburbs of Brisbane, particularly in the electorate of Moggill,’’ he said.

“Local students, families, teachers and school staff deserve an education system that puts the needs of students first, and that includes school facilities that are fit for purpose both now, and well into the future.

“Since I was first elected as the LNP State Member for Moggill I have consistently advocated for the State Labor Government to invest in additional local high school infrastructure and facilities, and I will continue to fight to ensure local families get the education resources and infrastructure they deserve.”