AT 22 Stephen Smith seems an unlikely advocate for a secondary college at Doreen.
He hasn’t got a wife or a teenage child but he is a Kinglake Black Saturday survivor who believes in his new community.
His family lost its home in the blaze and moved to Doreen with other bushfire survivors and he believes a secondary college, which could also be used by residents after school hours, would provide an anchor for the community.
The acting president of the Doreen Residents’ Action group, he wants the state government to commit to
building a secondary college on a government site at the corner of Cookes Road and Painted Hills Road.
“I’m studying urban planning and things like secondary schools are vital to communities,” Mr Smith said.
He said the Baillieu government had promised a feasibility study but had not funded it. “We don’t need a study, we already know we need it,” he said.
Sarah Lee of the Action Group for State Secondary Schools for Postcode 3754, has young children who won’t need a secondary school for several years, but believes the community does. She lost her Kinglake house on Black Saturday and said the school would be more than a building, that it would provide a focus point for community events and bring people together.
– Sue Hewitt
