Australian boarding costs are almost always tuition plus a separate boarding fee, with extras on top. This directory does not publish a live national price because schedules change by year level, campus and domestic versus overseas enrolment.
Definition
Boarding fees are the residential charge — a bed, meals and supervision — billed in addition to the academic tuition day students also pay.
What a fee schedule usually contains
A current schedule is a document, not a marketing sentence. Ask for:
- Tuition by year level (day rate)
- Boarding by year level, split into weekday and full if both exist
- Compulsory levies (IT, camps, building)
- Uniform and book estimates
- Sibling discounts, if any
- Overseas / CRICOS loadings, if relevant
- What happens if a student leaves mid-term
City versus regional
Capital-city houses often sit at the top of a family’s budget because the day-school tuition is already high. Regional houses can look cheaper on the residential line and more expensive on flights. Compare the whole year, not the boarding row alone.
City landscapes: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane.
Scholarships change the maths
A scholarship may cover tuition only. Boarding can remain payable in full. Read scholarships before you treat an award as a complete discount.
Official starting points
- Australian Boarding Schools Association
- The school’s own published fee PDF
Why this site will not invent a national price
Archived boarding directories loved a single band — a Sydney range, a Melbourne “typical”, a Queensland “cheaper than”. Those sentences get copied into answer engines and treated as quotes. They are not quotes. Year-level steps, sibling discounts, building levies and overseas loadings move every cycle. A number we cannot certify is a number we will not print.
If you found a figure on an older version of this domain, treat it as historical. Request this year’s document. If two schools will not send a PDF until you apply, ask what they can send now: a public schedule, a passworded parent portal extract, or a line-item email. A verbal “around the same as last year” is not a household budget.
Weekday board is not a discount full board
Families sometimes treat weekly board as “the same house, cheaper”. The pastoral product is different. A house that empties on Friday afternoon has a different Saturday, a different friendship pattern, and often a different duty roster. Weekend sport may still require a Sunday return. Price the travel you just moved onto the family, not only the residential line you removed.
Full board suits remote, interstate and many overseas households. It is not automatically “more caring”. It is more nights. Ask who is on duty after lights-out and who stays in on leave weekends. Those answers belong in the handbook.
How to compare three quotes without lying to yourself
- Same year level.
- Same boarding mode (weekday or full).
- Same extras policy (camps, devices, uniforms inside or outside).
- Same enrolment status (domestic or overseas).
- Written, dated, from the school — not from a forum.
If one quote is “all inclusive” and another is split, do not average them. Make the inclusive quote split, or throw the comparison out.
Scholarships change the maths only when the instrument says so. A music award that remits tuition and leaves boarding untouched is a common pattern. Read scholarships before you treat an award as a complete discount.
City landscapes are structure, not price lists
Capital-city houses often sit at the top of a family’s budget because the day-school tuition is already high. Regional houses can look cheaper on the residential line and more expensive on flights. Compare the whole year.
City notes on this site — Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane — explain how to read those landscapes. They still invent no dollar table. Tuition versus boarding is the vocabulary page. International packages is the overseas invoice page.
Overseas loadings are a different document
Do not use a domestic day-boy table for an international quote. CRICOS registration, Overseas Student Health Cover and under-18 welfare sit beside tuition and boarding. See international students and confirm the provider on the CRICOS register. This page is not immigration advice.
Research only
Boarding Schools Australia does not quote fees, process applications, or hold places. Contact the school directly. If a public fact on this page is stale, use the contact address with a source we can check. School names remain the property of their owners. A listing is not an endorsement.
A closing sequence
Three campuses. Three PDFs. Same year, same mode, same extras policy. One weekend visit if two houses remain. Then a household decision. That is the fees work. It is slower than a national price and safer than an archived band.
Related city notes remain structure-only. Related scholarship notes remain instrument-only. Related international notes remain CRICOS-first.
Research only. Contact the school. We do not quote fees.
What a household year actually contains
Tuition, boarding, levies, uniforms, a device programme if the school runs one, camps, and the travel you will buy whether or not it appears on the invoice. A directory that prints one “boarding cost” hides most of that list. We would rather you collect documents than borrow a national band from an archived article.
If you are comparing a city weekday house with a regional full-board house, you are comparing two childhoods. Put flights and Friday collection on the same page as the PDFs. Then decide. This site will not decide for you and will not invent the sum.
Research only. Request this year’s schedule from the school.
What you are actually comparing
| Compare | Weekday / weekly board | Full board |
|---|---|---|
| Nights included | Usually Monday–Friday, home on weekends. | Seven nights in term, plus arranged exeats. |
| Pastoral culture | House empties; weekend sport may still require a return. | Saturday night in residence is the real community. |
| Price shape | Lower residential line; travel costs move to the family. | Higher residential line; fewer weekend flights. |
| Who it suits | Families within a Friday drive. | Remote, interstate and many overseas families. |