Bindoon school Edmund Rice College to temporarily close down

A Bindoon boarding school with a tragic early history is closing for at least two years after it was deemed unable to operate because of plummeting enrolments and other pressures. Founded by the Christian Brothers in 1938, Catholic boarding school Edmund Rice College — which caters mostly for Aboriginal students studying vocational courses — will apply for its registration to be suspended from next year while its educational model is reviewed. The school’s governing body, Edmund Rice Education Australia, said around 60 students from Years 7 to 12 would be given a choice of another Catholic school. Staff would be redeployed or provided with other appropriate support. The school — previously known as Bindoon Agricultural College — has a sad history as the site where many young boys were abused. Child migrants from Britain and Ireland gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse that savage beatings were frequent and paedophile brothers operated freely inside the school. EREA Colleges chair Pauline Gately said the decision followed a significant period of reflection, during which it was determined that “the school is not able to continue operating in its current format.” EREA Colleges chief executive Chris Woolley said a recent decline in enrolments, students’ evolving educational and social needs, and the complex heritage site had put pressure on the schooling model currently in place. “The review will ensure that we are best able to continue to appropriately meet the educational, social and emotional needs of all students, and this must be paramount,” he said. “The pause in operations will allow time to develop an alternate educational model that takes the college forward with the needs of young people and the college’s sustainability as our ultimate focus. It will also allow us time to consider the critical infrastructure requirements of this complex heritage site in consultation with local authorities.” Mark Sawle, a former principal of Great Southern Grammar and Aquinas College, has been appointed to manage the change process. Future options would be decided after consultation with First Nations communities, the college community, government and other stakeholders.