Bishop of Bathurst, Michael McKenna, has approved the decision to move forward with the construction of a new secondary campus of St Matthew's Catholic School after receiving the recommendation from the Diocesan Catholic Education Council.

The project has a budget of $30 million.

This comes as a result of a long consultation period and examination of various options with the St Matthew’s Capital Works Reference Group, the school management and staff, as well as the Mudgee community, facilitated by personnel from Catholic Education, Diocese of Bathurst.

Bishop McKenna also received the support and consent of the Diocesan Finance Council and the Diocesan Consultors, to progress the project.

The second campus of the existing St Matthew’s Catholic School is planned to be constructed on a Broadhead Road site in South Mudgee. 

St Matthew’s will still continue as a K-12 school, with the K-6 campus retained on the current school site on Lewis Street.

Fr Paul Devitt, Episcopal Vicar for Education for the Diocese said “These are the very first steps in a long journey ahead. The project is a major undertaking and there is significant work required in planning and preliminaries before construction can begin.

“All new schools are considered as State Significant Development (SSD) and as such, require State Government approval, which alone could take up to 12 months.”

The Diocese will work closely with the Mid-Western Council and State Government departments to meet the necessary local and state government requirements in order to move forward.

“This is an exciting step in ensuring the future of quality Catholic education in the growing Mudgee region,” said Fr Devitt.