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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Stephanie Convery

Across Australia’s outer suburbs, more parents are picking private over public schools. What’s behind the trend?

Ana Mulipola
Brayden Stone, principal at Southern Cross Grammar in Caroline Springs, Victoria. The independent private school has grown rapidly in recent years. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian

When Ana Mulipola and her husband, Walter, moved to Caroline Springs in Melbourne’s outer west 22 years ago, “it was literally just us”, she says. “We had no neighbours. It was a blank canvas.”

They hadn’t thought much about their future children’s education when they built their home in the greenfields development, but as the suburb has grown around them, so has their family. When the time came, they chose to send their three boys to a Catholic primary school.

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