General News
29 January, 2025
Much-needed school bus service a focus of survey
Does Mount Isa need a school bus service? The Department of Education wants your feedback.
Mount Isa families are being invited to participate in a survey that will gauge community support for a dedicated school bus run in the city.
The online survey has been spearheaded by Mount Isa Educational Precincts, which has been tasked by the Queensland government with finding local solutions to the challenges identified by Mount Isa state schools and social service providers.
The survey, which is expected to be promoted within school communities in the coming weeks, has only three questions that ask how often a family might use a bus service.
Responses will be sought until the end of February with the results shared among officials at the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) and the Department of Education.
Educational Precincts senior project officer Danielle Brennan said early feedback from school teachers, social service providers and community leaders across Mount Isa had indicated widespread support for a school bus service.
She said the online survey was the first step in engaging the wider community in these discussions.
“The more responses we can get, the better our information will be, which will assist in our next steps,” she told North West Weekly.
“To help us assess the feasibility of this service, we would greatly appreciate the input of our community.”
This week marks the commencement of a new state government-funded bus service for the Mount Isa State Special School, which was designed to assist children with disabilities who cannot travel independently to and from school.
Now the push is on to examine the viability of a bus run for the remaining state school students across the city.
Educational Precincts recently approached TMR officials, who agreed to collaborate on the research initiative.
Despite being a long-discussed need in the city, Mount Isa’s geographical layout and population distribution has meant the majority of students reside close to their nearest state school and do not meet the distance criteria for a school bus service under the state government’s School Transport Assistance Scheme (STAS).
To be eligible to receive STAS, primary students must reside more than 3.2 kilometres from the nearest school and secondary students must reside more than 4.8 kilometres away.
Lack of access to reliable transport has long been identified among educators as a perceived barrier to school attendance, with multiple North Queensland coastal cities, including Innisfail and Bowen, boasting a public transport service despite housing a smaller population than Mount Isa.
The state government has a rolling program on investment in transport services, including school bus services, with the sprawling township of Malanda, which has a population of only 2000 residents, the latest location to introduce a state-funded bus service in July last year.
The survey can be found at: https://survey.qed.qld.gov.au/n/aMjhQEV