New High School in Bungendore

I object to the High School being built on the proposed site. Although I am absolutely not against a Bungendore high school, I believe cannibalising the heart of Bungendore to do so is a terrible idea, especially when there are much better alternative sites around Bungendore. Bungendore Park has tremendous public amenity value for all residents — not only would building a school in its place negate its heritage and terminate its future, but I believe that the current plans for the school would have a net negative impact on the wellbeing of all residents. My family was attracted to the region by Bungendore's community, heritage, and public facilities. For their sake and everyone else's, I hope that the Council can work in conjunction with the State Government to find a better option that enhances the cultural values of our beloved town without sacrificing what makes it great.

Please see attached objection.

Please see submission attached

I really like the position of the new Bungendore high school. I live only a block away. The temporary placement at the Primary school is ok and once the High School is fully up and running the temporary placement will be a distant memory. I'm very glad that planners took into consideration the flood zones as the new High School would have been unaffected by recent flooding whereas the other supposed sites would have been flooded. Great job, and can't wait for the new Bungendore High School !

Dear Director
OBJECTION TO LOCATION OF NEW HIGH SCHOOL IN BUNGENDORE: APPLICATION NO. SSD-14394209
I refer to the above development application.
I object to the proposal overwhelmingly because of the proposed un-safe LOCATION of the school on the following grounds.
I have looked at the amended application and it does not address my concerns at all. Did it address any?
In fact it is even more worrying given news that there is to be temporary accommodation for students on the Bungendore Primary site and additional car parking in Turallo Terrace where the Pre-School is!
The location is madness. Drop off and pick up at the Primary School is already a nightmare and cars are parked there for the whole day. Has anyone even visited the site during drop off and pick up?
Whose idea is this disaster as they should be held responsible for the un-safe position you are now placing our children in.
There are other better safer sites that do not compromise the amenities and the social centre of the village.
My initial Objection is below stands, and it remains along with the added un-safe disgraceful location this development puts the children in.
Yours sincerely
Thelma Oberdorf
109 Newington Road
BYWONG NSW 2621
Telephone 0401782379
[email protected]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Director
OBJECTION TO LOCATION OF NEW HIGH SCHOOL IN BUNGENDORE: APPLICATION NO. SSD-14394209
I refer to the above development application.
I object to the proposal overwhelmingly because of the proposed LOCATION of the school on the following grounds.
1. The location is the only public amenity for the village and surrounds.
The pool
With no public transport, and nothing for the young and old to do in Bungendore, I spent countless Friday nights at the end of the ‘70’s and ’80 baking cakes for countless street stalls to feed ACT travellers going through the town. How many Sydney municipal pools have life members rewarded for leading fundraising and government complimentary funding for them with their own sweat? We do. Appendix A has an excerpt from a community page from Jill Fox, one of our 3 life members.
The pool is a life-blood for families in summer with the added social aspect of night time sausage sizzles and picnics.
Very importantly, it is also a facility that allows the learn-to-swim programme to function. For surrounding families with dams on their properties, this is a godsend. Rhonda Jane Foulds must have taught a few thousand kids to swim by now.
Sure, you can build another pool elsewhere, but not in such a great site, and with a gap of how long?
The Community Centre
To demolish this important facility is just a disgrace, especially with no replacement. People in Sydney and other towns may have access to support, but we don’t. We worked so hard for this.
Appendix B has an excerpt from a community page about our Community Centre.
Other amenities
The footy teams and even the informal games will have to arrange for access to the High School grounds.
People also use the oval for walks and meet ups because it is at the heart of the village.
The oval is also used for fairs, especially in pre-Covid times when the steam train came from Canberra.
The Anzac ceremonies will be profoundly changed, especially for families with children who stay on the park socialising after the ceremony.
How can you cut down 73 trees in this wind swept cold climate where growing anything is hard except for absolutely dedicated gardeners, let alone trees that have taken decades to grow?
Where was the place to picnic when we were allowed to meet up with 5 other people during this pandemic? Obviously the heart of the village and its heritage centre!!!
2. Unsuitable location
The site is too small for high school.
Why choose a location for a high school that is so small and doesn’t allow for expansion of the school? Covid with working from home and spiralling house prices mean that regional areas like Bungendore can only grow.
I understand that the site is 1.2 hectares smaller than the Education Departments standards for new high schools.
You couldn’t even have a basketball court or some green space for the students without encroaching on the tennis courts or the toilet block, so much used by travellers and caravanner’s and people from the surrounds.
It will be a traffic nightmare. It is already difficult to find a car park near the Primary School and those to the east of it a full during the day, so obviously with teacher and support staff cars. How many extra cars will there be for teachers and support staff, and more mature students who will drive their own cars.
3. There are other locations
Why would you demolish the heart of a village for a major infrastructure project like a high school that cannot expand as the population expands?
There are other sites like at Ashby and other new housing development areas which would satisfy the needs of a school and leave the heart of the village alone.
Conclusion
Please leave the heart of the village alone and pick another location for the school. They are available and suitable.
Yours sincerely

Thelma Oberdorf
109 Newington Road
BYWONG NSW 2621
Telephone 0401782379
[email protected]
 
Appendix A
Bungendore swimming pool
In 1978 the Bungendore community started to raise funds to build a swimming pool. Before that very few children in Bungendore could swim. Now we face the demolition of the community swimming pool in Bungendore Park at the corner of Turallo Terrace and Majara Street to make way for the proposed new High School. The Pool Committee is making plans to celebrate its 30th birthday in November!
“I remember the day when the local school was invited to take part in East Queanbeyan’s Swimming Carnival long before we had our pool here. There was great excitement. Children were asked if anyone could swim and a sea of hands shot up. On the day they lined up on the blocks shivering with excitement, and at the signal jumped in…..and sank! Teachers came from everywhere and dived in for a mass rescue. Shortly after the pool was finally opened and Rhonda-Jane Foulds had taught all our children to swim, Bungendore primary school was winning the local District Carnival. Rhonda-Jane has taught generations of children in this town to swim…and no doubt young lives have been saved.”
Back in the late 70s we held a New Year’s Eve Street party in front of the Royal Hotel in Gibraltar Street. The whole street was closed off and an entry fee was charged. Bush bands on the back of a flat tray semi trailer and the famous animal imitation competition brought plenty of laughs, good will and dancing amongst the crowd. It was always a memorable night and a great way to farewell the old year and welcome the new. Bungendore locals enjoyed nothing better than a big community party. This was the seed sown for raising funds for a pool for the community. A committee was formed and ideas were floated as how best to raise funds. On Good Fridays we ran a bucket coin collection at the railway crossing. Coins intended for the plate at Good Friday church services probably ended up in the “pool bucket”. Luckily bank interest rates on savings were 18% at the time and the money we collected made more money!
By the late 1980s we began seeking grants and after much lobbying we got a grant to build the ammenities block at the pool site. If you have ever looked closely you will notice that the bricks used are different from the bricks of today. They are in fact bricks made in Queanbeyan in the 1800s and come from a number of very old houses that were eventually demolished in Queanbeyan.The bricks were stacked in our backyard until with the grant, three local tradesmen, Danny Clancy, David Daniels and Paul Fox used them to build the amenities block. A little history and recycling at its best.
Finally, with money raised from community pockets over twelve long years, a State Government grant and extra funds from the Council, the pool was opened on a very hot afternoon in November, 1991. Our young daughter, Kate Fox, cut the ribbon at the official opening with local Labor member, Jim Snow. All this was achieved by the efforts of volunteers working together with the community for the benefit of everyone living in the area. It was an enormous achievement and took a great deal of energy, stamina, perseverance and generosity from all. The swimming pool is a great social meeting place for children in a town that has few opportunities for teenagers. Many of the children who have grown up here over the last thirty years have special memories of hours spent with friends…and enjoyed healthy outdoor exercise as well.
I fear we will not get a replacement, but if by chance we do, the site proposed for the “new sports hub” will not have an indoor pool as many imagine as Council only portrays it as “covered”. The site would involve children crossing the very busy and dangerous Molongolo/Tarago Road and young children will not be able to walk by themselves to the new site as they do to our current pool. Furthermore, the Primary School won’t have the easy access to a pool as it does now because it will be too far away.
This is a community pool and was run as such for its first years managed by volunteers from the community. No consultation was carried out with members of the Swimming Club or other “stakeholders” who use Bungendore Park, nor the wider community before the Council decided to announce the knock down of a community asset, “no longer fit for purpose” (rubbish!), an asset that was initiated and largely paid for out of community pockets!
Appendix B
Community Centre
“Back in 1976 this small town was acknowledged as having ‘a wonderful community’.
It still has, and it, and its hard won community facilities must not be lost.”
In 1976, Peter Brown, the local Anglican Minister and his wife Miriam saw that although Bungendore had a wonder

As someone who lives and works in Bungendore I object to this proposal for many reasons. There’s the Bungendore Park heritage issue, the Mick Sherd oval problem, the traffic abomination that will definitely occur in that area if the high school is squashed onto a site that is too close to the primary school and too close to the railway line. I work very close to that area and the traffic is ALREADY awful at school pick up , drop off times. Sharing facilities with the primary school will just not work - there are many issues with timetabling as it is according to sources in that space.
Please create a high school in Bungendore, most want that.. but you will have heartache ( and fierce opposition) all over town if you decide to go ahead with that site!

Submission of support

Dear Sir/ Madam
I am writing to object to the proposed Bungendore High School adjacent to the Mick Sherd Oval for the following reasons.

The loss of public facilities in the centre of town, specifically the pool, community centre and promised Abbyfield House. The loss of open space and the park for community use during school hours.

The lack of room for future population growth at the site.

The impact of traffic on Turallo Trc and Butmaroo St and residents.

The impact on traffic flow once the road is closed.
The lack of transparency about other sites for the school and why they were rejected.

Please see my attached objection

Please see my attached objection

I object to the development of a High School for Bungendore, on the chosen location being Bungendore Park (aka Mick Sherd oval) . I have resided in the town now for fifty (50) years. The town has had the oppotunity to have the use of much used community facilities eg swimming pool & Norah Starrs Community Centre. Why should we agree to loose these facilities for them not to be replaced. The traffic chaos that will be caused will be a huge burden on the residences in the adjacent streets. The school will have nowhere to grow. I am certainly pleased i no longer have school aged children myself at the Primary school or pre-school. There needs to be other sites considered, put on the table for the whole community to review. People who dont even reside anywhere within this area making decisions as to what our community can & cant have is SO WRONG. Yes B'dore is a rapidly expanding community, however, the govt do not appear to be keeping up with its expansion. Why will the govt not attempt to obtain a much larger piece of land that will accommodate a high school that will allow for expansion. We dont want a concrete jungle that most of the cities eg Sydney melbourne etc provide. People have moved here for the wide open spaces, larger home blocks & the community facilities that ARE AVAILABLE for use currently. The oval is not only used for sporting events but on many an occasions (unfortunately) for the rescue helicopters to pick up accident victims to transport to hospitals. So where should this helicopter land should a high school be built where the Education dept is proposing. Is there a planned heli pad also incorporated on the roof of the high school, extremely unlikely? We as adults know what it is like to be a teenager & I certainly do not believe plonking a high school between Preschoolers & Infants/Primary age children is a good idea, & i dont need to spell out the reasons why not do I ? If by the time a high school child isnt able to get themselves to a location of a high school then god help society in the future! I cannot even believe that the current site is even being given consideration of where to 'plonk' a high school. The city deciders need to get themselves out of the city & visit some country towns just to see what high school facilities are available & the SPACE these schools have to grow & to be able to provide a wide range of courses eg Ag. PLEASE READ ALL THE SUBMISSIONS PROVIDED ON THIS DEBACLE & LISTEN TO OUR COMMUNITY. Mr Barilaro has caused a lot of unnecessary division amongst the community. Had he been a decent polli then he wouldnt have stood there telling us who live here, who use the community facilities, built by funds raised by the people of this community, what he is forcing upon us & what the govt is forcefully taking away! I do hope that the person reading this submission will give their time to consider these notes. Thank you for your time.

Please see my attached detailed objection

9th October 2022

Director – Social and Infrastructure Assessments
Planning and Assessment
Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Locked Bag 5022
Parramatta NSW 2124

FORMAL OBJECTION to SSDA-14394209
Dear Sir/Madam

NEW HIGH SCHOOL IN BUNGENDORE
APPLICATION NO. SSD-14394209

I refer to the above state-significant development application

I Strongly Object to the building of a High School in the Majara/Gibraltar Street Precinct, Bungendore for the following reasons!

The site of the proposed High School is so small and constrained that the Department of Education is having difficulty in providing the necessary car spaces to accommodate staff and students and consequently is proposing to construct carparking along a residential street - Turallo Terrace.

By closing a major access road - Majara Street, traffic will now be forced down Turallo Terrace passed the Preschool and into either the residential streets of Butmaroo and Ellendon or to the unsafe T-intersection with Molonglo Street. 300 houses are soon to be built at North Elmslea with their main thoroughfare being Turallo Terrace via McCusker Drive.

Bungendore Primary School and the Preschool are already in this precinct with current car space use maximised on most school days. The Minister for Education, Sarah Mitchell, and the Member for Monaro, Nichole Overall, have just announced a grant of $1.6m to expand the Bungendore Preschool to increase placements from 48 to 100! This means more families looking for car spaces each morning and afternoon.

It will be traffic chaos mixed with preschoolers, primary school kids and now proposed high school kids - some of whom will be driving themselves to school. DoE is closing a major access road along with its car spaces, there will be more buses, more cars, young inexperienced student drivers and with DoE intending to construct 98 car spaces on Turallo Terrace, this is a disaster waiting to happen!

This is all council land, not part of the compulsory acquisition. It is NOT SUBJECT to the rules of SSDA. There will need to be a formal agreement between QPRC and DoE regarding this Turallo Terrace parking plan.

The privately run ‘Before and After School Care’ business, which also operated holiday care programs, was forced to close because of the proposed high school. This business was informed that they would need to vacate the Bungendore Community Centre premises because it has been compulsorily acquired by the Department of Education for the proposed high school. The business had applied to the controlling body to be accredited to operate from the local Scout Hall directly across the road but was refused on grounds of the risk assessment.

An extract from the email Country Kids Club operators sent to parents:

‘To ensure the future of our Service the Bungendore Scouts have been supporting us to move our Service to the new Scout Hall. Unfortunately we are unable to go ahead with the request for a Service Approval to operate the Country Kids Club from the Scout Hall. Several issues have come up in particular the risk assessment conducted for the access from the Scout Hall to the School with the route changes when the build for the High School commences.’


The size and number of buildings have been reduced. Yet school capacity remains 450 students. Nichole Overall, member for Monaro recently announced on Radio 2CC that the school will cater for over 700 students.

The Community Centre is to be demolished with no thought on how the users will find other accommodation. Such as:
• Bungendore Community Aid (volunteer organisation) which utilises a large area to store medical equipment for loan and hire to the community.
• BCA and numerous other groups use the Community Centre for meetings.
• Child Health Care Clinic
• A nurse consultation service
• Before and After School Care
• play group.

The Department of Education will no longer provide community facilities such as a library. Health centre, sports facilities, and Council front office…. and Council will now have to build all the replacement facilities – not just cost, also disruption and delay.

I implore Planning New South Wales to reject this application outright and insist that the Department of Education reopen their search for an alternative green fields site.

Please see my attached objection.

Hi.
Am writing this submission to object to the new high school in bungendore to be positioned on and around the existing sports ground and new playground. I am quite familiar with this area, often staying with my daughter and her young family, attending football games at the rec ground and taking my grandson to the new community playground. These are all things that need to be in close proximity to the town centre. That is why these facilities are used by not only the townsfolk but also by many visitors to the town. You can put a high school anywhere within a 2 klm radius of the town centre where students can be bussed, driven by parents or even better, walk or ride to school. You cannot compare this with the convenience of families of all ages being able to easily access a fantastic community facility, quite often by walking or cycling.
DO NOT COMPROMISE an existing well planned community asset OR a new high school by attempting to adhoc a poorly thought out plan.
The community rec ground and surrounds are a well planned precint. Do the same with the out of town proposed new high school. PLEASE.

I object to the current plans for Bungendore High School. I support the building of a high school in Bungendore but not on this site. The whole project is an example of poor planning and a failure to properly consult with the Bungendore community.

I oppose the appropriation of community land and facilities to provide space for high school.

I believe that the planned high school will be too small and that projected student numbers don't align with projected population growth in Bungendore and the surrounding region. It is highly likely that there will be more demand for student places at the high school than the current plans allow for.

I understand that other suitable and larger sites for a high school are available in Bungendore.

The original design incorporated some replacement community facilities; these have been removed from the current plan. Planning of a high school that removes council and community facilities should be done as an integrated project that includes plans and funding for replacement facilities in a timely fashion that doesn't result in even temporary loss of amenities in the Bungendore community. These include:
• council chambers and offices
• community centre
• library
• swimming pool
• Bush Balladeers Place
• scout storage shed
• Abbyfield House
Under the current plans these are all shuffled off to separate planning exercises with no clear responsibility, timing or funding. Planning for all these facilities should be undertaken as one integrated exercise.

Traffic planning for the school appears inadequate and does not account for the recently announced increase in the number of children that will be attending the Bungendore Preschool on Turallo Terrace. This is another example of isolated and inadequate planning.

The planned parking along both sides of Turallo Terrace will be a disaster. There has been no consultation or consideration of the loss of amenity to the residents of Turallo Terrace by installing this parking. Traffic along Turallo Terrace will increase substantially from current levels due to the closure of Majara St, the enlarged preschool and the new high school. Having 90 degree parking on both sides of the street with these increased traffic levels and movements of large numbers of child pedestrians provides an unacceptable risk of accidents.

The location of the cricket nets does not allow run-up space for the bowler so they will be unusable.

I object to the proposal to build a high school on Bungendore park and question if any reputable traffic study has been done to gauge the effects of an increase in vehicle movements on the streets surrounding the proposed high school. I note that a traffic assessment (not traffic study) was undertaken for only three hours on a particular day during Covid. I would hardly think that this limited assessment could be accurately relayed upon to assess traffic movements for a proposed high school. I am also questioning the safety of 90 degree angle parking on Turallo Terrace , especially in the vicinity of our pre school which has just received funding for another 50 or so places.Turallo Terrace funnels into McCuskar Drive which is one of the main roads used by the residents of the large Elmslea estate. To have cars backing out into traffic coming for McCuskar Drive especially when there will be numerous students, pre school children, parents and teachers getting in or out of their cars is an accident waiting to happen. I note that the revised report mentions that there is no evidence of accidents on Turallo Terrace. That could be because there is currently no existing angle parking on Turallo Terrace,no students or parents in cars backing out into traffic and there are currently not 50 extra pre school places. I am also sure that the residents of Turallo Terrace would not appreciate their street being turned into a car park. I also question why the Queabneyan Palerang Council should be providing car parking , especially 98 spaces that will add to council's maintenance costs when their budget is severly in deficit.
I also note that it is mentioned in the revised report that the intersection of Molonglo Street and Turallo Terrace is a standard T intersection. Unfortunately the residents driving from the Elmslea Estate along Molonglo Street have to come over a raised bridge. Those motorists at the intersection on Turallo Terrace wanting to turn onto Molonglo Street don't always get a clear view, this is especially problematic with the numerous sand trucks which use this road. When the bridge on McCuskar Drive floods, as it does regularly, those residents from Elmslea Estate can only drive down Molongo Street, which will make this intersection even more hazardous. The safety of motorists has not been adequately considered.
The traffic assessment is inadequate and the Turallo Terrace proposed parking arrangements are unsafe especially where children are concerned.
The proposed high school is unsuitable for this location and a new site needs to be found.

I object to the High School being built on the proposed site and believe there are much better alternative sites around Bungendore

I wish to object to the high school being built on the proposed site and believe there are much better alternative sites around Bungendore. Parking and traffic will be chaotic and dangerous – It is BAD PLANNING.

I do not believe the concerns raised in my initial submission have been adequately addressed. The Amendments solve nothing and the end result is totally without merit when the available options are considered.
There are NO conditions that can be added to improve the scenario regarding parking, traffic and school access to open space and to provide equivalent community facilities. If this is allowed to proceed, it will not only be a disaster for the Bungendore community at large, a triumph of short-term bureaucratic bullying by DoE (as shown by lack of any real community consultation) but it will also mark a low point in Dept of Planning abandonment of impartial assessment based on merit. I would like me to reiterate my point that this is BAD PLANNING.

Submission 1:
Please see attached two submissions + cover letter from Save Bungendore Park Inc.

Submission 2:
10 October 2022

Director – Social and Infrastructure Assessments
Planning and Assessment
Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Locked Bag 5022
Parramatta NSW 2124

Dear Sir/Madam

FORMAL OBJECTION to State Significant Development Application 14394209
NEW HIGH SCHOOL IN BUNGENDORE

Application Number SSD-14394209 - New High School – Bungendore
Save Bungendore Park has captured a video (link below) which illustrates how terrible the traffic issues are currently. We ask you to consider how the vastly increased traffic, parking and bus movements will be managed if construction of the high school on the Bungendore Park location is allowed to proceed.
This consideration should also take into account the inevitable requirement to expand the primary school’s capacity as families move into the Elmslea North subdivision.

Traffic Video:
https://fb.watch/g3Ppyv6Hc4/