Regional Australia - Boarding Schools

This section of the site provides information on Regional Australia's schools providing boarding facilities. School details are provided by state and locality.

Those who click through on individual school links will get a feel for the great variety offered whether for local or overseas students.

Boarding has changed enormously since the days of long drafty dorms with iron framed beds and saggy mattresses. There is now much greater flexibility in boarding arrangements (boarding for discrete periods, week-end boarding etc), while facilities have improved enormously as has the range of educational options. Increasingly, parents are choosing boarding as one choice in a wide ranging educational menu.

You will also see considerable variety in when you visit the individual state or territory pages reflecting variations in history and geography. We have made some comments here to provide a guide.

We do recommend that both overseas and metro parents consider the Regional Australia boarding option whether for full or part schooling.

From our experience, Regional Australia's boarding schools offer two major advantages for overseas parents:

• They generally provide better value for money simply because their fees are usually lower with given facilities than the metro alternative.  
• There is usually much closer interaction with both other students and local communities. This adds to the value of the boarding experience.

These advantages are also of value to parents and students from Australia's metro areas. In addition, Regional Australia's boarding schools offer experiences that are either simply not available in metro areas or, if available, come at a high add-on cost.     

For more general information on Australia's boarding schools see:

• Australian Boarding Staff Association, http://www.boarding.org.au/. This Web site includes school lists by state as well as a range of information on the boarding option.
• Hobsons Australian Boarding Schools, www.ozboarding.hobsons.com. Again includes lists of schools by state as well as information on boarding options.