The announcement that construction will soon begin on a second college for Gungahlin, while welcome, has arrived years too late for a rapidly expanding district.
While Deputy Chief Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith recently visited the Nicholls site to herald the $124 million project, parents and students face a frustrating reality. The new college will not open its doors until the first term of 2029, well after the next territory election.
Gungahlin has grown exponentially since its official launch as the territory's fourth towncentre by then chief minister Rosemary Follett in 1991. From just 389 residents, the district exploded to house almost 88,000 people by the 2021 census. Today, the population is probably near 100,000. It boasts a population comparable to regional cities like Ballarat or Bendigo, yet it lacks anything resembling the equivalent educational infrastructure.
This population boom did not occur overnight. Census data consistently ranked Gungahlin among the fastest-growing communities in Australia. The government built the suburbs and approved the developments, fully aware of the families moving in. However, the Labor and Labor-Greens governments failed to deliver the essential public infrastructure required to adequately support this self-evident, well-documented and easily foreseeable growth.
The consequences of this delay are clearly visible at the existing Gungahlin College, which currently holds the second highest number of enrolments across Canberra public colleges. With more than 1100 students packed into years 11 and 12, the facility operates over capacity. Former P&C Association president Rachel Armstrong has pointed out that overcrowding forces teachers to conduct classes in open areas and science laboratories.
Instead of addressing the root cause early, the government engaged in creative accounting. Officials previously released census data suggesting the existing college had a true capacity of 1270 students, a figure parents disputed. Compounding this frustration is the recent controversy surrounding school building contracts.
The new college will face a unique set of educational requirements. Gungahlin is a young, vibrant and highly diverse community.
At the time of the 2021 census, children under the age of 14 comprised 23 per cent of the total population, representing about 25,000 children today when factoring in subsequent growth.
More than 41 per cent of households spoke a language other than English at home, nearly double the national average.
This rich linguistic and ethnic diversity, encompassing languages such as Mandarin, Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Croatian and Korean, presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Educators establishing the new college must tailor their approach to serve this specific demographic profile effectively.
Residents are entirely justified in their complaints regarding the belated delivery of vital infrastructure.
The delayed response validates the criticisms levelled by Gungahlin Community Council president Henley Samuel. He accuses the ACT government of being a reactive entity that waits for systems to break before attempting to fix them.
While breaking ground in Nicholls is a necessary step forward, it remains a delayed reaction to a foreseeable problem. The government must now ensure the project stays on schedule and delivers a facility capable of meeting the complex needs of a dynamic, multicultural community.
Families in Gungahlin have endured delays for too long already.
