Students in two regional Victorian towns will be able to access a popular “country feel” high school in Daylesford as part of 11 new enrolment boundary changes announced by the state government this week, marking a win for the community’s decade-long fight for change.
The towns of Ballan and Dales Creek, located about 80km west of Melbourne and home to roughly 3400 people combined, are currently zoned for Bacchus Marsh College, which has approximately 800 students. But as of next year, families can instead enrol high school-aged children at Daylesford College.
“This outcome reflects years of hard work, persistence, and navigating plenty of setbacks along the way,” a post on the college’s website reads.
Moorabool councillor and student council president at Daylesford College Ally Munari said she became involved in the boundary issue more than six years ago, when the high school had just enough space to accept her son. Living just outside the Ballan township, her family was outside the zone.
“It just happened to be luck of the draw,” she said.
The council president said that many parents in the area wanted the feel of a “country school”, rather than a larger suburban high school.
“It’s always about the right fit for the child, of course, and at Daylesford College it ticked all those boxes for those used to the country feel. And it was the same for a lot of other parents,” she said.
In recent years, zoning had become considerably stricter for parents who wanted to try out-of-zone applications, Munari said.
“In a country town, you wouldn’t always think that.”
Daylesford College school council vice president Chris Gingell agreed with Munari, saying a school with a country feel was what many families were looking for.
“The vast majority of people who live in Ballan would prefer to come to Daylesford rather than Bacchus Marsh because it’s regional,” he said.
The change also solves “the problem of declining numbers in one school area, and oversupply in another,” Gingell said. He and other advocates called the change a “win-win” scenario for the region.
It is one of 11 changes to existing enrolment boundaries that have been redrawn as part of an updated map released by the state government this week.
The government also imposed enrolment restrictions on more than 100 of Melbourne’s most sought-after state schools and placed smaller “non-standard zones” on 17 schools to discourage “school shopping”.
There is also a new zone for Aintree North Primary School, which is set to open next year.
Other schools have seen boundaries redrawn to improve accessibility, including Bethal Primary School in Meadow Heights, Balambalam Primary School in Clyde North, and Kulap Primary School, Clyde Primary School and Clyde Creek Primary School in Clyde.
For Copperfield College, the change is to the Kings Park junior campus (Years 7 to 10) and the Delahey senior campus (Years 11 and 12) school zones.
There were also closures, with Currawa Primary School in the Goulburn Valley and Seaspray Primary School in Gippsland closing last year.
School enrolment zones are reviewed annually to reflect new schools opening, changing provisions at existing schools and enrolment demand.
“This is to ensure Victorian students can access a great local government school,” a spokesperson for the Department of Education said.
With the admission process for 2027 due to open in early Term 2, the school boundaries mandate where children will be guaranteed places at local schools next year.
Education Minister and Deputy Premier Ben Carroll said local public schools were “at the heart of Victorian communities”.
“That’s why we’ve delivered 121 of them, so kids can learn in a great school close to home.”
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Caroline Schelle is an education reporter, and joined The Age in 2022. She previously covered courts at AAP.Connect via X or email.