New college proposed for Mooroopna

By Bree Harding

Aug 15, 2024

A new Islamic P-12 college is proposed to be built on the damaged and dilapidated Mooroopna Hospital site by 2026. Photo by Evie Feehan

A proposal has been made to build a private Islamic P-12 college on the former Mooroopna Hospital site.

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Illuminate Australia — an educational initiative to build faith-based schools — is the applicant.

The independent school — named Mooroopna College — would be a not-for-profit facility, initially catering to up to 90 students across all year levels of primary and secondary education.

A render from Illuminate Australia’s website of the proposed Mooroopna College on the former Mooroopna Hospital site.

A Greater Shepparton City Council spokesperson said the site “had been purchased for the purpose of establishing the college”. However, as a non-government school development, the Victorian Minister for Planning was responsible for planning approval.

The Planning Department approved the initial proposal in June.

The News has been unsuccessful in contacting Illuminate Australia; however, its website states: “We want to raise a generation of morally upright students who can contribute to the wider Australian society with the two wings of faith (Iman) and knowledge (I’lm).

“Our mission is to establish independent not-for-profit faith-based schools aligned with Islamic values in all major cities of Australia.”

Illuminate Australia plans to open Mooroopna College in 2026.

Bellfield College in Rossmore, NSW, is one of Illuminate Australia’s already completed projects. Image from Illuminate Australia’s website.

It has already established two colleges — Bellfield College in the Sydney suburb of Rossmore and Playford College in the Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth — with plans to build another in NSW (Blacktown) and one in Perth.