Murwillumbah flood families ‘left in limbo’ as sorry saga of mega-school merger wears on

They merged their schools in the wake of flooding disaster. Now Northern Rivers parents are desperate for answers about what will happen when their kids’ high schools are split in half again.

“Traumatised”, flood-affected kids are being treated as a political football in NSW’s Northern Rivers, say furious parents opposing a high school demerger which would return their children to dilapidated classrooms currently inhabited by squatters.

Students at Murwillumbah High School and Wollumbin High School were combined into one cohort at the Wollumbin campus last year under the previous government, only to be de-merged at the end of 2024 following a union-backed Labor election campaign.

The original plans would have seen the two high schools and two local primary schools – including one which regularly floods – come together on one newly-built with brand new facilities, technology and more senior subject offerings.

Dad Craig Taylor said the original, abandoned Murwillumbah HS site has already been gutted, “looks like a run-down prison from the 1800s” and has squatters residing in it.

“My son (Year 10) was very anxious … but the merger’s been really good for him, he’s met new friends and is mixing with new people, but now we’re back to square one,” he said.

Murwillumbah HS has been empty since the start of the year, with students moved over to the nearby Wollumbin High School campus. Picture: Supplied

Path to the main block of the abandoned Murwillumbah High School. Picture: Supplied

“The political parties have used our kids as a tool to win votes, but it’s the kids who are going to lose out on their futures.”

Mum of two Year 8 boys, Tereasa Bennett, said before the merger, Year 12 students at both schools were forced to undertake science subjects like physics by distance education.

A concept design for the scrapped four-school Murwillumbah Education Campus.

“Parents thought this (merger) was … going to give them 21st century facilities and give them more subject choices,” Mrs Bennett said.

Now “an entire community of traumatised children” have been “left in limbo again”, she said.

“We deserve to have the facilities that we were promised, we deserve the wham-bang, high tech school.

“What are we going to end up with, just a refurbed old building?”

Education Minister Prue Car will visit Murwillumbah to hear from parents and teachers in early Term 3, as the Department of Education launches a community consultation process in coming weeks.

2020: Tweed MP Geoff Provest, education minister Sarah Mitchell, deputy premier John Barilaro and Ben Franklin MLC with the four Murwillumbah principals, announcing the four-year $100 million plan to close four schools and create a mega campus.

“I understand that the community is keen to see a long-term solution, and I ask for their patience as we work through the process that will deliver the best results for teachers and students,” Ms Car said.

The budget for the new Murwillumbah Education Campus was set at $150.5 million, of which $23.4 million has already been spent with a further $43 million in contractual commitments up in the air.

Cancelling the project will theoretically save the government $83.5 million, but the parliamentary budget office costing doesn’t take into account essential work to render the schools habitable.

The empty Murwillumbah High School site, overgrown and disused. Classrooms have already been stripped of any useful equipment. Picture: Supplied

Concept designs for the Murwillumbah Education Campus - one of Murwillumbah High School’s heritage buildings would have been kept.

The Department did not respond to detailed questions put to it by The Daily Telegraph but in a statement confirmed infrastructure work would be required, and that its ‘intention’ would be for students not to be disadvantaged in subject availability.

A spokesperson said the upcoming consultation would be “thorough but prompt”.

“We are working with the families from the Murwillumbah school communities deliver the right result,” they said.

“We do not wish to keep the community waiting any longer than necessary for certainty going forward.”

Opposition education spokesperson Sarah Mitchell urged the government to continue with the fully funded project, instead of “completely disregarding” the millions already spent.

“The uncertainty that the Labor government is putting these families under is unforgivable,” she said.

“It’s a waste of taxpayer money.”