Residents vow to fight school plan

Above: An artist's impression of the new school main entrance and chapel.

Campaigners are rallying support to fight new plans for a 1550-student independent school on the former North Lakes golf course.

Save North Lakes Golf Course (SNLGC) says it is “very concerned” about the proposal and urges residents to “have their say”.

JH Northlakes and the Anglican Schools Commission are proposing to use land south of Diamond Jubilee Way for two campuses.

Fifteen hectares (of the 68-hectare course) would be for a pre-prep to Year 12 school, with two-thirds of that area being “open spaces or playing fields”.

“With the golf course gone, the site is under-utilised land in an existing urban area with a growing population,” JH Northlakes CEO Simon Forsyth says.

JH Northlakes also has a development application (DA) with Moreton Bay City Council for a 68-bay driving range, restaurant and conference facilities.

It would use the golf clubhouse and three neighbouring holes, covering around 2.1ha of the former course off Bridgeport Drive.

However, the Information Request Response Period has been stopped by the applicant for 20 days, with the response to Council now due on December 19.

Simon Forsyth says the new school DA is expected to be lodged through the state’s Ministerial Infrastructure Designation (MID) process in “coming weeks”.

Under the MID, the school proposal will be decided by Queensland’s Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie, who has the relevant portfolio.

However, Save North Lakes Golf Course (SNLGC), which fought previous plans for a retirement village and aged care facility, is opposing the latest planned use of the former golf course.

In an email to members, SNLGC said: “Something very similar, on pretty much the same part of the former course, was proposed and rejected by the State Government” in 2021.

“So, you’ve got to wonder what’s changed?”

SNLGC also says the new schools’ main entrance would be off Endeavour Blvd making traffic and on-street parking “a disaster for North Lakes”.

Some SNLGC members were among 50 who attended JH Northlakes’ community information sessions at North Lakes Hotel last week.

The community can also “provide feedback as part of the MID process” which has two rounds of consultation.

The North Lakes Campus project is currently at preliminary consultation. If MID lodgement proceeds, formal consultation will take place in 2026.

Plans for the new schools will help City of Moreton Bay meet a need – assessed by Independent Schools Queensland – for 21,000 extra school places by 2046.

“This year alone, total school enrollments in City of Moreton Bay rose by 646 to 14,996,” Mr Forsyth said.

“Families should have a choice of schools and values-led schools are an important part of that choice.

“It is expected the school would start with a much smaller student body and grow to this size (1550 students) over 10 years.

“The plan seeks to contribute much needed educational and recreational facilities, such as a pool, chapel and playing fields, that can benefit the broader community while retaining the open space values of the existing site.”

On its North Lakes Campus website, JH Northlakes says it is “continuing to look at possible uses for the balance of the site, with commercial sports and recreation at the top of the list”.

“Potential options include a driving range (application is in progress), a nine-hole golf course, a café and housing.

“The site is in a Koala Priority Area that extends across North Lakes. The Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning has confirmed there is no mapped koala habitat Area on the site.”

Mr Forsyth also said: “Education is allowable under the Development Control Plan that governs the site”.

But, SNLGC believes “whole area was (and still is) designated recreational open space and is an environmental corridor under the original master plan for North Lakes”.