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A Mackay school has topped the list for the rate of growing enrolment numbers across the wider Mackay Isaac Whitsunday region.
Farleigh State School had a 260 per cent increase in student numbers over the five years from 2016 to 2021, data from the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority has shown.
Its total pupils soared from just 20 to 72. Dundula State School students laying a wreath at the Mackay Anzac Day Main Service, 2021. Picture: Heidi Petith
The next fastest growing schools were St Lawrence State School which more than doubled its students from five to 12 and Dundula State School which went from 41 pupils to 88.
Vietnam Veteran Leslie Palmer officiating the Mackay Anzac Day Main Service. Picture: Heidi Petith
Mr Palmer said despite Mr Payne living in Mackay for 40 years, it was only the third time the oldest surviving Victoria Cross recipient had made a hometown service as he was in high demand.
Photos
Mr Payne shared a touching story for the first time of a woman finding her ‘Gallipoli stone’ while he visited Turkey in 2015 to mark the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Lone Pine. Vietnam War veteran and Victoria Cross recipient Keith Payne with his wife Florence at the Mackay ANZAC Day march 2021. Picture: Lillian Watkins