One-year blowouts hit Queensland school Olympics projects

Queensland is yet to get shovels in the ground on Olympic infrastructure projects at state schools weeks before the priority projects were supposed to be completed.

The Education Department instead said it expected to green-light construction in early 2026.

The state government’s Go for Gold school grant scheme awarded more than $93 million to 120 schools in its infrastructure funding round, with projects “to be completed by December 2025”.

Glenala State High School in Brisbane.Credit: Morgan Roberts

In July last year, six schools secured the highest level of funding – category three – to cover projects ranging from $2.5 million to $5 million, including Glenala State High School in Brisbane’s south-western suburbs.

However, almost 18 months later at the state’s original deadline for all projects’ completion, none of the high-level funding projects had begun.

A spokesperson from the Department of Education said all six schools would have projects finished by the end of 2026 “subject to weather conditions, market capacity and construction schedules”.

“Project delivery timelines will be monitored, and where feasible, opportunities to accelerate delivery will be implemented,” the spokesperson said.

The projects range from oval refurbishments to new training precincts in preparation to support development ahead of the Brisbane Games in 2032.

Glenala won the grant for several covered outdoor multipurpose courts, expected to provide additional training grounds for students in its netball excellence program, Glenala Netball Academy.

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The program, designed to “establish clear pathways to university, TAFE, and elite netball programs”, accepts students via applications and costs parents $100 per year for tuition.

In a post made online at the time, the school said it received just under $4 million for the new courts.

The department could not reveal the amount awarded to each school, saying it was commercial in confidence.

However, the school was advised in late 2025 it had been de-prioritised, as the Education Department was instead focusing on other category-three funding recipients in the state’s north, where it anticipated remoteness and seasonal weather patterns could delay construction.

Of the schools receiving funding, three were in Cairns, one in Townsville, and one on Thursday Island, in the state’s remote far north.

The state expected the first project would be completed by September next year, at Aitkenvale State School, in Townsville, and Bentley Park College, in Cairns.

Across the entire infrastructure funding round, about one in eight schools were located in the south-east, and 14 per cent of schools were in the Catholic or independent sector.

Opposition education spokeswoman Di Farmer, who was education minister when the program was launched, said the program had been designed to bolster sports participation ahead of the 2032 Games, and urged the state to get all the projects off the ground.

“Labor announced the final round of Go for Gold last year, so it’s disappointing some schools still don’t have any timelines,” Farmer said.

The entire program – including round one, which funded sports equipment at schools – was budgeted three years ago in the 2022-2023 state budget.

In the 2025-26 budget, the state estimated the program would eventually cost $123.2 million, 60 per cent of which had already been funded by mid-2025.

The state budgeted $1.08 billion for school infrastructure in the 2025-26 financial year, and earmarked $814.8 million for new and upgraded infrastructure across the next four years, including eight new schools across the south-east.

Education Minister John-Paul Langbroek did not respond to questions about progress in the program but said the state planned to deliver 15 new schools in total across the next four years, with many funded in the 2025-26 budget.

“We believe every Queensland student deserves access to a world-class education, regardless of where they live, and these upgrades help to deliver this,” he said.

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