https://savebungendorepark.org/

Save Bungendore Park, Bungendore (2026)

23/04/2026

VINDICATION: ICAC Finds SINSW Leadership Corrupt

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has today released its final report into Operation Landan, finding that Anthony Manning (former CEO of School Infrastructure NSW) and his associate Martin Berry engaged in "serious corrupt conduct."

For the Save Bungendore Park community, this is a moment of profound vindication. For years, we argued that the leadership at SINSW was operating without transparency, ignoring the law, and treating our town with contempt.

We found clear evidence of what we believed was corrupt conduct. We always said these guys were a bunch of crooks.

And now we know the truth about the culture and corruption at the very top of that agency.

Why this is relevant to Bungendore

While the ICAC investigation focused on recruitment and procurement fraud, the players involved are the same individuals who upended our town.

Martin Berry was not just a beneficiary of Manning’s "cronyism"—he was intimately involved in the "significant change of direction" in June 2020. Records we obtained under FOI show that Berry was at the centre of the last-minute decision to target Bungendore Park.

And Manning – his boss and crony – was in charge of the agency that spent four years lying, cheating and gaslighting our community. He took such a keen interest in Bungendore that he turned up at our Court hearing, and was there again and visibly shocked when the judge ruled that his pet project was unlawful.

The Findings:

• Serious Corrupt Conduct: ICAC found Manning subverted recruitment and procurement to funnel lucrative contracts and jobs to his friends.

• Misuse of School Funds: Manning spent millions of dollars intended for building and improving schools on personal associates.

• Hiding the Truth: The agency hid the true spend on recruitment by "sourcing funds directly from school project budgets"—the very budgets meant for our children’s education.

• Silencing Dissent: Manning terminated staff who dared to question his decisions and then lied about it.

A Disaster That Was Entirely Avoidable

Today, construction is well advanced on the Elm Grove site and we can finally say Bungendore Park is safe.

However, we cannot forget the years of heartache, the legal fiasco in the Land and Environment Court, and the massive waste of taxpayer money. If the corrupt leadership at SINSW had acted with integrity in 2020 instead of pushing through a flawed plan, Bungendore’s high school students would be in their permanent classrooms today.

And if those corrupt bureaucrats and their clueless political masters hadn't continued to fight our community to save their dodgy plan until well after it had lost all credibility, we could have avoided so much pain.

The Fight for Accountability Continues

We are satisfied that Manning and Berry have been called out for their corrupt conduct, and they may yet face criminal proceedings, but this report did NOT examine the Bungendore High School fiasco.

Our question remains: When will there be a full investigation into the Bungendore High School? Why was the "change of direction" pushed so hard by people now found to have been seriously corrupt? And why, when it was clear that the plan had lost all credibility, did SINSW and the politicians waste even more time and money trying to resurrect it?

The Park is safe, but the disaster in Bungendore remains a stain on the record of School Infrastructure NSW. We deserve to know how deep this went.

And you know what? We're still waiting for an apology. Not just from Manning and Berry, but from the politicians who enabled them to start with, and then delayed far too long in fixing their mess.

You can read the media release here, with a link to the report: https://www.icac.nsw.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2026-media-releases/2026-media-release-article

02/09/2025

Today marks a major milestone for Bungendore: construction has officially begun on our new permanent high school.

We wish the students, staff and the entire school community every success. We’re confident you will do us all proud.

This is more than just a building site - it's the result of years of community advocacy. We stood up to government mismanagement and bullying, and refused to accept second-rate compromises.

To everyone who spoke up, showed up, and never gave up: thank you. Your determination made this happen.

We at SBP are proud to have played a role.

We dragged the Government, kicking and screaming, to this outcome. We dragged them through the Courts. We won literally dozens of FOI battles. Disgracefully, the Government even sent a process server to the home of one of our Committee, threatening a Supreme Court appeal.

It's been tough on all of us, but today reminds us why we did it.

This is what a united community can achieve.

26/06/2025

The Department of Education has published the planning application for the “Bungendore High School Temporary North Campus” on the Department of Planning website. This is now open for public comment - we've included a link below.

The plan will involve converting the Council building to accommodate staff facilities and administration areas, a hall, sick bays, library, canteen, toilets, five classrooms, a visual arts workshop and performance spaces. Three demountable buildings will be installed between the Council building and the Community Centre, to include one classroom, a science lab, wood and metal room, food tech and kitchen.

They note that “The Bungendore High School Temporary North Campus is anticipated to accommodate two year groups. Students will be permanently located at their nominated campus (i.e. either north or south campus) for the duration of the academic year to avoid the need for student movements between campuses on a regular basis. Teachers may move between campuses, subject to operational needs and timetabling.”

The Department states that the demountables will be removed and the land returned to QPRC and NSW Crown Lands when it is no longer required for the school.

This is not a formal planning application because, under a loophole in the planning laws, the Department doesn’t need planning permission. It gets to mark its own homework. But it still needs to tick a few boxes.

Funnily enough though, they do refer to the “historic SSDA” for their original, disastrous plan to build on Bungendore Park – which they say was withdrawn because it “was subject to mixed community sentiment and a lengthy and complex planning approval pathway”. Hmm. Might have been more accurate to say “which was a bizarre brain fart that should never have been pursued in the first place”!

There’s still a few errors we spotted immediately. Whoever prepared the Review of Environmental Factors didn’t investigate the future plans for the Council building and wasn’t aware that QPRC wasn’t proceeding with the planned new building on Gibraltar St – and the author of the Heritage Impact Statement got the history of Bungendore Common completely wrong (yet again!).

But that aside, this looks like a sensible step forward – and in the long term we’ll have all our community spaces back. Comments are open until 21 July if you’d like to have a look at the plans and let the Department know what you think.

https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/part-5/bungendore-high-school-temporary-north-campus

14/04/2025

SUBMISSIONS CLOSING TOMORROW!

Just a reminder that public submissions on the plans for the new Bungendore High School plans will close TOMORROW, Tuesday 15 April.

The plans are currently on public exhibition on the Department of Education’s website and are summarised in a “Review of Environmental Factors” which replaces the Environmental Impact Statement we saw for the Bungendore Park site. We've included a link below.

While the plans look great, we’re sure that many of you will have some great ideas about how to make this even better. We encourage everyone to have a think about any suggestions for improvement. You don’t need to write something detailed – just have a think about what’s important to you, your kids or grandkids and to our community, and what you think the Department could do better.

We had a few ideas:

• Why doesn’t the Department use this opportunity to secure the western side of the site to ensure the school can have a full-sized oval, so that it meets the minimum standards set out in the Educational Facilities Standards and Guidelines? That land could be acquired – and used to make sure our kids have the best possible facilities.

• We hope the Department has assessed staff and student travel and parking needs on the basis of realistic assumptions. One of the biggest failings with the old Bungendore Park site was that they manipulated the transport analysis with fanciful assumptions about how kids would travel to school, and where they would come from. They ignored the fact that this is a regional school with a rural catchment. They had to do that previously because a proper assessment would have highlighted that the old site simply didn’t work. Now, with a clean slate, we need to be certain that they've made realistic assumptions, and made sure the plans can cater properly to current and future student transport needs.

The transport assessment suggests that there is demand for 58 staff parking places, but only 50 spaces on-site. The remainder will need to be on-street. It confirms that "no on-site parking is to
be provided for students." That's a massive oversight given the number of senior students coming from Wamboin, Bywong or further afield who will be driving themselves.

And here’s one more thing. Assessing and improving the social impact of a development is big part of the planning process. That extends beyond just the buildings, but also to the community’s sense of place - how the development engages with the community, and how the community can relate to it.

The Department of Education has done terrible damage to our community and our sense of place.

While we’re all looking forward to a great school in Elm Grove, we're yet to see any acknowledgement of this harm from the Department of Education. The new development is an opportunity for it acknowledge its mistakes and try to help us heal.

In the spirit of reconciliation, we’d love to see some ideas from the Community and from the DoE about how the new design, the development and the community engagement process could recognise not just the troubled history of the project, but Bungendore’s history and our community’s epic fight to achieve a great school, in the right location. We’d love you to put your ideas to the Department of Education.

We don’t know if submissions will close at midnight tomorrow, but in the past we’ve see a cut-off in the early evening. So please try and get in ahead of time to make sure your voice can be heard.

https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/part-5/new-bungendore-high-school

09/04/2025

And Majara Street has re-opened!!!

One step closer to putting this nightmare behind us forever.

🍾🎈🥳

05/04/2025

It's been really lovely in the last few months - after everything that's happened over the last few years - to hear from so many people how much support there is for the new high school plan.

It's been amazing how many people we've spoken to, who say they're so relieved that the old plan has been ditched. People with kids or grandkids signed up to BHS, who didn't dare speak out against the old plan because they were too scared and the atmosphere was too toxic.

They're thrilled that their kids can look forward to something so much better than the old bodge.

One of our committee was talking to someone by chance in Canberra last week. They have a child starting at BHS in two years and were thrilled by the new plan. They said they always thought the original Bungendore Park plan was an appalling bodge. They wanted better for their son.

Isn't the new plan a fantastic relief for our town.

We've been overwhelmed by the support we've received, especially now that people feel free to speak their mind.

But let's not forget our community is still hurting. We were bullied and lied to for four years by deceitful politicians and bureaucrats.

We hope, one day, for an apology. Maybe we'll receive an apology from:

- the ex-QPRC Mayor who rubber stamped this, instead of standing up for our town and our kids

- the ex-QPRC GM who cooked up the scheme

- the ex-MP and ex-New York Trade Commissioner who stood up in August 2020 saying "this is the site we're choosing" and didn't give a stuff about integrity.

- the ex-shortest tenured Member for Monaro in history, who might have fixed this disaster years earlier if she'd had the courage to acknowledge the mistakes of her predecessor.

- the ex-Department of Education Senior Project Director who stood up to community members and claimed he knew "in his heart" the bizarre Barilaro plan was actually OK, and has now expunged any references to this project from his LinkedIn profile.

And, so far, no apology from the new Government and the new local MP. Who - while they're now trying to fix things - wasted almost two years taking us to Court in a bu****it doomed legal attempt to defend the Barilaro plan. Seriously, a first year law student would have laughed at their arguments.

Why did a new government fight a local community to defend Barilaro's toxic plan? Why was the first action of a new government to take a community group to court to defend Barilaro's bodge?

So while this disaster is slowly getting fixed, we're still waiting for an apology. We've had press releases. We've had mealy-mouthed weasel words trying to squirm around the fact that our little town has beaten a bunch of bullies in the State Government.

But we haven't had an apology. Our community deserves that. So how about it Steve Whan MP - Member for Monaro - will the Government acknowledge its mistakes and apologise for what it did to our community?

Will we see an inquiry into what went wrong here?

Because we're still hurting.

21/03/2025

The Department of Education has placed its plans for the new Bungendore High School on public exhibition. We've included a link below.

The plans are described in a “Review of Environmental Factors” which is now on the Department of Planning’s website. This Review replaces the Environmental Impact Statement and detailed development application we saw for the Bungendore Park site.

It’s part of the simplified planning pathway which is available on the Elm Grove site because (unlike Bungendore Park) it is actually permitted under the current zoning. Under this pathway, the Department doesn’t require development consent – but it still needs to prepare various reports and undertake public consultation.

The plans look great. They are massive improvement on the sad little proposal announced for our Park back in 2020 – and are clear proof that all the years of heartache and hard work from so many of our members and supporters really will deliver a far superior outcome for our town and for future generations.

We’re sure that many of you will have some great ideas about how to make this even better, so we’d encourage everyone to look at the plans and associated reports, and have a think about any suggestions for improvement. Submissions are due by Tuesday 15 April.

We don’t plan to make a formal submission as “Save Bungendore Park” – although we’re still puzzled that the DoE seems to have missed the chance to acquire the western end of the block in order to provide a full-sized sportsfield (as required in the Educational Facilities Standards and Guidelines). After wasting so much money on planning and legal fees to try and defend the failed Bungendore Park plan, we’d think the cost of a little bit of extra land so our kids can enjoy full-sized sports facilities that actually comply with minimum standards would be a rounding error.

But either way, it's great to see real progress towards a fantastic school. We can all be proud of what we've done to achieve that - and we hope that many of you are able to make submissions to make it even better.

https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/part-5/new-bungendore-high-school

17/02/2025

We’re getting closer to seeing the return of our Community Centre, and we can expect Majara Street to re-open “very soon”.

In closed session in last week’s Council meeting, Council approved a Deed of Settlement with the NSW Minister for Education and Early Learning, and authorised the General Manager to sign sale contracts to buy back the Council chambers, the Community Centre and Council land on Majara Street, as well as the Majara Street Road Reserve, for $1 each.

Upon settlement, Council will resume ownership of those properties and proceed to reopening of Majara Street as a Council Road. Council also authorised the General Manager to discontinue the court proceedings against DoE relating to the compulsory acquisition.

The documents are still with the Minister for signature and as yet there’s no public timeline, but we understand the intention is that the road is reopened “very soon”.

It may take longer for the Community Centre to re-open as it will require some repairs - and it will be a while before the Council building is back to normal as it's going to be leased to the Department of Education until the permanent high school is finished.

We’re not sure what’s happening with the Crown land sites (parts of the Park and the Common). This will need to be worked out between DoE and NSW Crown Lands, but hopefully those sites will officially be returned to the community soon as well.

It’s great to see real progress made towards undoing the mess left by this awful fiasco. We congratulate QPRC and the majority of Councillors who supported this resolution and the return of our community assets.

But sadly it wasn’t before some final theatrics in Council – which saw two Councillors oppose the resolution, and another two simply walk out of the meeting. We can’t speculate on their motives, but we had thought the time for point-scoring had passed….

The Minutes are available here. See item 16.2: https://www.qprc.nsw.gov.au/files/assets/public/v/1/2025-council-meeting-documents/2024-minutes/20250212-12-february-2025-ordinary-minutes.pdf

31/01/2025

Here’s the Department of Education’s Project and Tender Information Pack for the new Bungendore High School.

It looks fantastic! And such an improvement over the initial bodge!

One thing troubles us, though. The information pack confirms that the school won’t have a full-sized playing field. Rather than a standard-sized rugby or soccer field, the new school will have a a 50x70m sports field. That's around half or two-thirds the size of a proper football field.

And yet, under the Department’s own “Educational Facilities Standards and Guidelines”, a high school should have a “competition sized sports field”.

We don’t know exactly what “competition sized” means. But we’d expect the guidelines require a full-sized pitch – and it will definitely be needed as the school reaches its planned capacity of 1,000 students. There’s plenty of space to build one if the Ag Plot is moved further west, to the area adjoining Harp Avenue which is currently marked on the site plan as “low density residential”. The DoE could acquire that land at the stroke of a pen - and not just give out kids and even better school, but actually comply with its own published design standards!

The DoE has clearly put a lot of work into a new design which will be a fantastic asset to the town. So why are they cutting corners with the school oval? Why won't they comply with the EFSG? Hopefully they see sense before the plans are finalised.

Steve Whan MP - Member for Monaro - we've seen so much great progress in the last few months. It would be such a shame if the DoE misses this opportunity.

09/12/2024

The Department of Education is holding a drop-in information session to reveal the concept plans for the new Bungendore High School this Thursday, 12 December.

The session will run from 3pm to 7pm, at the temporary Bungendore High School hall, corner of Majara and Malbon Sts.

It seems a shame the plans aren't available in advance so that the community has a chance to think things through ahead of time, and be able to ask better questions or give more constructive feedback. But hey, an engagement strategy that encourages genuine community involvement is probably expecting a bit much from the DoE!

Here are the details.

Save Bungendore Park

23/04/2026

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14/04/2025

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