By Casey Neill
The disused Maralinga Primary School is a pile of rubble, despite a push from parents and councillors to reopen the school.
Excavators moved onto the Keysborough site to minimise vandalism and antisocial behaviour.
Maralinga closed at the end of 2014 and all pupils moved to nearby Chandler Park Primary School following a five-year merger process.
The Department of Education and Training (DET) declared the land surplus to its needs in 2015 but has not yet sold it.
In January last year, more than 100 parents backed an online petition started by Greater Dandenong councillor Roz Blades urging the State Government to reopen the school.
On his Facebook page, Greater Dandenong councillor Matthew Kirwan noted “the sad destruction of my old school”.
“With the age demographic of this area sure to change, and this being the only school site in this neighbourhood, this decision will be regretted,” he said.
Local resident Gaye Guest said bulldozing the buildings made “the primary school community north of Popes Road between the railway line and EastLink the most marginalised community in this municipality”.
“The loss of this school facility is devastating, especially if the land is going to be sold for housing development,” she said.
She said local schools were full.
“In the (Premier Jeff) Kennett era we lost Bangholme and Keysborough Primary School and Keysborough Tech,” she said.
“With school amalgamations we have lost Maralinga, Southvale and Coomoora primary schools and Coomoora secondary and Springvale secondary.
“For an area subjected to population growth to lose five primary and three secondary campuses is a blow to our local community when none have been replaced.”
A Department of Education and Training (DET) spokesman said the Maralinga site was vacated “after extensive consultation with the local community on how to best improve local schools saw it merge to form the new nearby Chandler Park Primary School”.
“We are investing more than $40 million to build and upgrade schools across Greater Dandenong to make sure local families living in this booming community can continue to access great local schools, including funding to acquire land to build the new Keysborough South Primary School and to upgrade Chandler Park Primary School,” he said.
“Before any school site is declared surplus, we carefully consider factors including projected population and student growth to determine whether it should be retained for future education needs.”
