Marlborough Schools Co-location

The project to co-locate Marlborough’s Boys’ and Girls’ Colleges and relocate Bohally Intermediate School (Te Tātoru o Wairau) was first approved in 2015. Over the following years the projected cost for this escalated from an estimated $170 million in 2018 to around $400 million. In December 2023, the Ministry made the decision to pause planned project activities while we identified how we could improve the value of the project and reduce project costs, as these had become unaffordable.

As a result of the timeline, scale and significant community interest in the Marlborough Colleges development, the Ministry has decided to proactively release historical documents related to this project. We will make sure this page is kept updated as the documents are released over time.

Date Advice type Title of document Reference
 3 December 2015 Briefing Note Marlborough Boys and Girls Colleges Redevelopment [PDF, 1023 KB]  970602
 6 October 2015 Briefing Note Cabinet paper: Education infrastructure investments -school property major redevelopments [PDF, 1.7 MB]  960826
 14 October 2015 Cabinet paper Education Infrastructure Investments: School Property Major Redevelopments [PDF, 5.7 MB]  SEC-15-MIN-0017
 17 January 2018 Aide Memoire Update on plans for Marlborough Schools Co-Location [PDF, 1 MB]  1101007
 20 February 2018 Education Report Co-location of Marlborough Boys and Girls Colleges [PDF, 1.6 MB]  1102077
 24 May 2018 Briefing Note Update on the Marlborough Colleges Options Review [PDF, 1.4 MB]  1126118
 13 August 2018 Education Report Marlborough Colleges Co-Location Review [PDF, 2.7 MB]  1144158 
 31 August 2018 Education Report Marlborough Colleges Co-Location outcome of Review [PDF, 1.4 MB]  1144158C 
 4 September 2018 Cabinet paper Marlborough Boy's and Girl's Colleges Co-location: Outcome of Options Review [PDF, 2.3 MB]  GOV-18-MIN-0061
 28 November 2018 Briefing Note Marlborough Colleges progress update [PDF, 1.6 MB]  1169394 
 10 December 2020 Briefing Note School infrastructure Budget 21 [PDF, 896 KB]  1247064 
    Supporting the Co-location of Marlborough Boys and Girls Colleges and Relocation of Bohally Intermediate [PDF, 878 KB]  
 22 September 2022   Budget 2023 - Critical Cost Pressure Information Gathering [PDF, 800 KB]  
 16 November 2022 Briefing Note An update on the Marlborough colleges co-location project [PDF, 741 KB] 1300298
 5 December 2022   Budget 2023 - Submission for Invited New Spending Priorities and CERF Initiatives [PDF, 1.5 MB]  

OIA requests on this subject are as follows:

Response date Details of the request Document
5 April 2024 Te Tātoru o Wairau rising costs and decision to pause project

1320828 Response [PDF, 438 KB]

1320828 Appendix A [PDF, 1.7 MB]
 5 April 2024 Marlborough Colleges

1321539 Response [PDF, 384 KB]

1321539 Appendix A [PDF, 2 MB]

Last reviewed: Has this been useful? Give us your feedback