Long-awaited Mount Duneed school gains selective edge

The Liberals have pledged to build the long-awaited Mount Duneed secondary school with a selective-entry stream for high-achieving students if the party wins November’s state election.

Opposition leader Jess Wilson announced the commitment on Tuesday, saying the school would be delivered during the Coalition’s first term.

Shadow education minister Brad Rowswell said the selective-entry stream would allow Geelong students to get access  to opportunities comparable to Victoria’s leading public selective schools, such as Melbourne High School, without leaving the region.

“We believe striving for educational excellence is really important, and should be a fundamental offered for every Victorian student,” he said.

“That’s why this school will be available not just for every local in this area, but it will be an important school for the Geelong region.

“We want to give those kids that opportunity, and the inequity in that space is something we have the opportunity to correct, and that’s what we want to do here.”

Rowswell said the proportion of students enrolled through the selective-entry stream would be determined through consultation and would make up only part of the overall school population.

The site, on the corner of Boundary Road and Sovereign Drive, was first identified for a secondary school in a 2012 precinct structure plan, but has remained vacant despite years of rapid population growth and community campaigning.

In 2022, then-Labor MP for South Barwon Darren Cheeseman committed $1 million towards a business case for the school, but it took another four years before the Allan government allocated funding in its 2026–27 budget to acquire the land.

Mount Duneed resident Sherryn Vessey, who has led the community’s campaign for the school, said the announcement gave families hope after years of waiting.
“It’s something we’ve been waiting on for a long time, and I like that they’ve put a timestamp on it,” she said.

“Let’s hope that if they are successful at the next election, they get building straight away.”

 

With her son now in grade 2, Vessey said the commitment meant he would have a local public secondary school to attend after finishing primary school.

Liberal member for Western Victoria Bev McArthur said it was “outrageous” the Mount Duneed community had waited so long for a secondary school.

“You all moved here thinking that when your children grew up, they’d have a high school to go to,” she said.

“It’s not the case. The Labor government has not delivered a school.”

The proposed school is one of the City of Greater Geelong’s key advocacy priorities, with the council repeatedly calling for the project to be delivered as Mount Duneed continues to grow.