Council brings in wreckers to knock down private school gates but fight goes on

A demolition squad moved in at a private school in the inner-north at the weekend to knock down a wall and gate at the centre of years of local tension.

Yarra City Council acted during the school holidays to remove a gate at Alphington Grammar School it claims was illegally constructed across a public road.

The council says the move marks the end of a long-running dispute with the school, but the principal has told families that the fight for control of the defunct section of Old Heidelberg Road is far from over.

The area in dispute, which leads to Darebin Creek and adjoins the popular Darebin Creek Trail, has long been considered part of the school grounds.

But when the school fenced off the end of the disused road in 2019, citing student safety, the council and many locals were not happy.

Access to the trail has been a controversial and emotive issue for Alphington residents ever since the $18 million walking and cycling route was completed in 2018, with no official access point in the suburb.

In 2022, the council forced the school to remove a pedestrian gate which formed part of the barrier, allowing walkers and cyclists access to the school grounds.

On Saturday, it finally made good on its stated aim to knock down the rest of the barrier and regain control over the road.

More than 270 submissions to a council consultation process supported reopening the road, prompting the council to say the Alphington public was on its side in the dispute.

The council says it will soon start on plans for a safe path to the trail from the end of the disputed road, and work has already begun on a pedestrian crossing, next to where the gates stood, for students moving about the campus, which straddles Old Heidelberg Road.

The expected cost to ratepayers is about $400,000, including the demolition.

Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly said on Tuesday that the council would ultimately make access to the Darebin Creek Trail through the grounds safe for cyclists, walkers and joggers.

“This has been a long-term problem between the council and community on the one hand and the school on the other, but it’s over now,” Jolly said.

“So it’d be great to work together to try and deal with the new reality.”

But school principal Vivianne Nikou does not believe the matter is closed.

Nikou wrote to parents last week expressing her “great disappointment” at the impending demolition.

“I must inform you we have been unsuccessful in stopping the City of Yarra from removing the child protection gate on Old Heidelberg Road,” she wrote.

“Whilst it appears we have lost this battle, we are still pursuing other options to secure our right to control this defunct piece of road, useful only to the school.”

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