At its ordinary meeting of council this week, councillors voted to commence the sale of the old school site, which is located on the corner of Barrys Road and Wilkinson Street in the small community.

The school operated from 1869 until 1983 and while the school buildings themselves no longer exist, the foundations and some play equipment do.

Some time afterwards, in 1989, the government declared the land to be 'unsuitable for retention as public land'.

This potential loss of historical significance upset some members of the community, who approached the then Shire of Creswick to purchase the site.

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The council did - purchasing it for $5000. The Campbelltown School Ground Committee was formed, with the intention for the committee to raise the money and repay the council to have the title transferred back to them.

The community paid the council back and in 1995 council acknowledged that all costs had been reimbursed, though the title was never transferred from the Shire of Creswick.

Hepburn Shire Council officers believe this could be due to the committee being unable to meet the requirements of an owner/ proprietor to which the title could be transferred.

While there is no longer a functioning committee to manage the site, there are former committee members who are representing its interests.

They recently approached council to inform them the site no longer has the historical importance it once did within the community and proposed its sale.

Council has since decided that the site is surplus to its needs, and will commence to sell the property under the Local Government Act 1989 following approval from councillors.

At the meeting, councillors decided that in addition to advertising council's intent to sell the land and allow the community to make submissions for a period of about 28 days, individual community members would be directly informed given that the community is so small.

At the meeting, Creswick Ward councillor Don Henderson said the discussion about the sale had been on the table since he joined council more than a decade ago.

"I think the intent of the community is to see the value of that land be better utilised by other groups. I commend this and it's a good example of council working with the community."

Hepburn Shire Council CEO Evan King said council would now follow statutory process to prepare the site for sale.

Any submissions received will go before council before the ultimate decision to sell the site is made.

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