School bus win for Mooloolah
Mooloolah parents have welcomed the recent announcement of a new bus service for children travelling to and from the Maleny High School. Replacing a train trip from Mooloolah to Landsborough, then a connecting bus to Maleny (and reverse in the afternoon), the direct bus connection means less risk of missed connections and late arrivals for young students. Since 2015, Lisa West and a dedicated band of Mooloolah parents have been lobbying local MPs and the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), as well as Queensland Government ministers, but to no avail. “Our main issue was that since the introduction of year 7 to high school it meant that children as young as 11 were travelling this train/bus route to school,” Lisa said.
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“So we, with the town’s support, were very concerned about the safety of 11-year-old kids being told they had to wait around a train station for up to 30 minutes with no adult supervision. “Rebecca Shepperson and I spent many hours, weeks and months talking with our local state representative, Mark McArdle at the time, and were getting nowhere. “Towards the end of 2017 a petition was written, signed and delivered to Mark McArdle’s office to be submitted on our behalf to the Queensland Parliament.” The petition was signed by 120 parents, representing 43 students currently enrolled at the Maleny school and 97 children expected to attend the school in the following five years. But Lisa found that the road to democracy is sometimes a bumpy one, with a state election in 2017 delaying parliamentary business. “Sometime around early 2018 with the change in state electorate boundaries we asked our now state member – Andrew Powell – to lodge our petition,” Lisa said. A response was received from the TMR and from Education Minister Grace Grace that left the community far from encouraged. “They told us that the STAS [School Transport Assistance Scheme] only funds the BusLink company to provide transport to high school students in the Mooloolah area, but BusLink does not have a service that runs from Mooloolah to Maleny,” Lisa said. “The Education Minister has told us to enrol at Beerwah – but I have been told by our local school principal that all state high schools have been given a directive to reject out-of-catchment enrolments. So this is not an option for us.” Early this year a ray of hope appeared in the form of a notice that the local bus company – Glasshouse Country Coaches – would extend one of its bus runs to include a stop at Mooloolah train station. “This was great news,” Lisa said. “Students from Mooloolah can now catch a dedicated bus from Mooloolah (a few stops in between) to Maleny SHS (and return in the afternoon).” The issue now is the cost - $3.90 for a single trip or $35.10 for a weekly pass, which is a direct cost to the local families as STAS funding does not cover any services in the area provided by Glasshouse Country Coaches. “For some families this cost is prohibitive,” Lisa said. The new service was twice the cost of the existing rail/bus route, she said. “Our argument with the state government now is why Mooloolah students are disadvantaged by paying $1,404 annually to send their kids to Maleny while some of our neighbours are sending their kids to state high schools outside their zones but are able to access STAS, which allows very low cost transport to get to school?” Member for Glass House, Andrew Powell, is assisting their cause. “Lisa got fired up about this issue - and rightly so. She brought it to my attention, sponsored and circulated petitions, compiled data, emailed me and the Minister regularly and ultimately called the parents of Mooloolah Valley to action,” Andrew said. "As a result, we now have a bus service to transport Mooloolah kids to their high school. "For the sake of the parents and the bus company, the service now needs to be subsidised by [STAS]. Then, I'm sure, Lisa will truly celebrate."
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