Moggill, the baby capital of Brisbane
Friday, 14 November 2008 10:15
. Analysis of recent census data by the Brisbane City Council and reported in the Courier Mail shows that the suburb of Moggill has the highest proportion of babies and infants of any suburb in Brisbane
In fact in Moggill 2.1% of the entire population is under the age of 12 months and 11% of the population is under the age of five years.
This demographic information from the census has significant importance for the local area and understanding our future needs.
In particular, local primary schools are bursting at the seams with enrolment growth and there is an urgent need to ensure they are adequately resourced to cope with what will be continued growth.
A particular issue however is that Kenmore State High School is now virtually at its full capacity.
Because of growing enrolments, the government recently instituted a catchment program where children are guaranteed enrolment in Kenmore High School only if they live within that catchment area.
This has created enormous difficulties for hundreds of local families in that for four years the largest single feeder primary school to Kenmore State High School has been Mt Crosby State School which has now been excluded from the catchment.
As enrolments continue to grow within the catchment, the opportunity for parents from Mt Crosby, Karana Downs and Karalee areas to send their children to Kenmore will be severely curtailed, leaving the only option a 13 km trip west to Ipswich.
Families in the Mt Crosby/Karana Downs area have been provided with virtually no effective public transport to enable them to use school facilities in Ipswich.
The government recently sold a potential high school site in the suburb of Chuwar.
Local parents believe that as there is no high school for over 24 kms from Kenmore to Ipswich, there is a need for a high school in the Mt Crosby Karalee area to service the enormous growth in school age population and to remove some of the growing pressure from Kenmore State High School.
It is lovely to see so many families and young children in our area but it should and does remind us of the historically poor level of planning in areas such as public transport and roads. It also strongly reminds us that we need to plan ahead to ensure educational infrastructure and options are in place well ahead of the known increase in enrolments.
This is the question I put to Education Minister Welford in the State Parliament. Click here to read.