Tara Murray
The former Sunshine College site in Ardeer will be retained by the department of education for future education use.
The site has been unused since the end of 2019, when the college merged its campuses from four down to two.
In the past five years the state government has sold off five school sites in Brimbank deemed surplus to its needs, but at this stage it is set to keep the Ardeer site.
A Department of Education spokesman said the Ardeer site was being retained for future education use.
“The department is considering appropriate interim use of the site in accordance with government land utilisation policy.”
Brimbank resident Sam Chebib asked about the future use of the site during question time at the council’s April meeting.
Mr Chebib said the land offered a rare opportunity to be repurposed for community use and wanted to know whether it met the council’s assessment criteria for land acquisition for community use.
Mayor Ranka Rasic said that at the time, the state government was yet to provide council with an update on its future plans for the Sunshine College Ardeer Campus.
Last week, city development acting director Leanne Deans said the site was still zoned for education use.
“The public use zone allows uses other than education to occur on the site as long as a planning permit is obtained for the proposed use and the application for a planning permit is accompanied by the written consent of the public land manager.
“If a proposal is received, council will assess it against the relevant provisions of the Brimbank planning scheme, however to date council has not received an application for any interim uses for the site.”
The council says there are education needs in the municipality that need to be addressed.
Community wellbeing director Lynley Dumble said secondary school education is a big issue for the council.
“Council has completed a study on secondary school education needs in Derrimut which indicated there was potential unmet need in existing secondary schools across the wider area,“ she said.
“We have used this information to advocate to the state government in relation to school sites and their retention for community-based activities, services or programs.“
