Plans to build private primary school in Point Cook knocked back by state’s planning tribunal

A private school’s plan to build a campus for nearly 450 primary-aged students in Melbourne’s booming outer west has been quashed. Here’s why VCAT refused the application.

An artist's impression of Point Cook Senior Secondary School. Picture: Victorian School Building Authority

A private school’s plan to build a campus for nearly 450 primary-aged students in Melbourne’s outer west has been quashed by the state’s planning tribunal amid fears the school would threaten operations at a nearby air base.

Lighthouse Christian College, which already has campuses in Keysborough and Cranbourne, submitted plans to turn a nine-hectare parcel of land in Point Cook into a primary school, citing the need for more education facilities in the rapidly growing area.

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It comes as work started on the long-awaited Point Cook South Senior Secondary School last week.

The public high school, for students 1100 in years 10-12, is set to open next year.

But despite a booming population putting the squeeze on schools — and roads — in the area, VCAT last month ruled the proposal by Lighthouse Christian College “prejudices the operation of the RAAF Point Cook air base”.

The subject land, at 85 Point Cook Homestead Rd, is in a Green Wedge Buffer precinct, which was set up to ensure and “adequate (boundary) is maintained between residential development, agricultural activities and the airport environs”.

“The proposal represents the type of urban intrusion and encroachment that is expressly discouraged and sought to be avoided,” the tribunal ruled.

“The airport is a critical piece of infrastructure which is to be protected from incompatible land uses.

“The proposed primary school would provide an additional educational opportunity for the growing Point Cook area and potentially a wider catchment.

“(But) the proposal … undermines the buffer role (of the site).”