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Small costs adding up across the school year have made education in Brisbane one of the most expensive in the country, a new report has found.
Brisbane’s Catholic schools have, on average, eclipsed other capital cities to be the priciest in the nation across a student’s 13 years.
That was according to a report commissioned by education bonds company Futurity Investment Group, which said it would cost families more than $270,000 to school a child from prep to year 12, beginning this year.
Brisbane parent Dom Woodall sends (from left) Lilly, Jagger, Thea, Zaeyan, and Tais to different Catholic schools.Credit: Dom Woodall
The report, completed by Resolve Strategic, crunched the costs on tuition, necessities, and popular opt-in costs, such as coaching and extracurricular classes using survey responses from 2500 families and school income data from Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.
Dom Woodall has five children who all attend different Catholic-sector schools in Brisbane.
Woodall said she chose St Laurence’s College for her eldest child, Zaeyan, because of its proximity to his gymnastics lessons at Brisbane Grammar School.
“He trained 26 hours a week, [and] he would take the bus,” she said.
Her other children, for three of whom she is a kinship carer, attended Our Lady’s College, Stuartholme School, Saint Edmunds College in Ipswich, and Mary Immaculate Primary School.
“All of them except the oldest, [Zaeyan], have engaged in school sport every term,” Woodall said.
“Stuartholme has fees for sport and extracurricular, but they are low and affordable … [at the other schools] sport is included in the fees unless there is a competition.”
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The report estimated a family with a child starting Catholic schooling in 2026 might pay $9860 for the year, with optional costs – including external coaching and tutoring, electives, school camps, and musical instruments – making up about 44 per cent of the annual sum.
However, it calculated school fees would be a family’s largest expense.
It said families with a child starting at a Catholic school this year could expect to pay on average of about $200 more than a Catholic school in Melbourne, and up to $829 more than a Sydney Catholic school.
However, Brisbane’s top total Catholic school fees fall significantly below other eastern mainland capitals. Brisbane’s most expensive Catholic school in 2026 – Stuartholme – would cost at least $10,000 less for a year 12 student than the priciest institutions in Sydney and Melbourne.
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Catholic Education Queensland Limited chief executive Allan Blagaich said schooling costs varied greatly across Brisbane.
“Across Catholic schools, there is a strong focus on keeping fees as low as possible,” he said.
“Catholic schools are not fully funded by government and parent contributions help bridge the gap between public funding and the real cost of delivering education.”
The report estimated 13 years of independent schooling in Brisbane could cost up to $423,378.
A parent at a state school could still pay up to $120,486 on their child’s education, although the report estimated only 8 per cent of the overall cost would be paid to the school for compulsory fees, and voluntary add-ons such as the student resource scheme.
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