February 20, 2013
The former Memerambi State School will be put up for sale after the South Burnett Regional Council today turned down an offer from the Department of Natural Resources and Mines to buy it for $215,000.
The school was closed by Education Queensland at the end of 2006 because of declining enrolments, just a year after it had celebrated its centenary.
At the time of the closure, the school had 13 students, one full-time teacher and a full-time teacher’s aide.
News of the closure prompted the school’s then 13-year-old captain Amanda Daly to publish a letter protesting against the closure.
Daly said Education Queensland had not taken into account the effects of six years of drought, which had forced some local families to leave the area.
Her plea had no effect and the school was “mothballed”.
The State Government has now determined it will not re-open the school – despite a new residential development being built in Memerambi – and the DNRM offered it to the Council “at market value”.
However Council turned down the offer, saying it had no identified need for either the facility or the land.
“Frankly, the school might have been a good buy back in 2006 when the government first decided to close it,” Mayor Wayne Kratzmann said.
“But after all these years, whoever buys it will have a lot of repairs and renovations to do to get it back into good shape.”
Last August the school was at the centre of fire scare when a ride-on mower sparked a grass fire nearby.
Cr Cheryl Dalton said today she had heard of several community groups in the region who might be interested in acquiring the Kings Road property.
DNRM will now offer the facility for sale on the open market on an “as is, where is” basis.
- Related article: Mowing Sparks Grass Fire
