The Eduwest consortium has been awarded a contract to design, build, finance and maintain eight public schools in and around Perth, delivered in 11 stages. This project is provided under a Public Private Partnership model for the Western Australian Government. The consortium is headed by Macquarie Capital who are sole sponsor, equity investor, debt underwriter, financial advisor and SPV Manager. Perkins Builders and Badge Construction have formed a 50/50 joint venture (BPJV) to design and construct the schools over a seven year period and Spotless will operate and maintain the schools until 2047.

The Contract was executed on 25 September 2015 and the BPJV design team has been working to have the design work largely complete by the end of 2016. The design approach takes into account the whole of life costs rather than just up front capital cost and incorporates energy efficiency, quality of materials and equipment and ease of maintenance. The solar panel installations will produce more power in a year than will be consumed, thereby reducing utility costs.

Rather than the traditional brick and block type construction BPJV has used lightweight steel framing together with structural steel and Bondek slabs on two storey buildings. This assists in speed of construction and flexibility for the future. The specifications for mechanical services and acoustics in particular are of a higher standard than has historically been the case and have set new benchmarks in the quality of the facilities. One of the benefits for staff in these schools will be that the facilities will be efficiently managed and maintained by Spotless so that the school staff can concentrate purely on education.

BPJV has been set up as a separate entity from the two parent companies so that this contract has no adverse effect on the day to day resourcing or function of those existing businesses. There are approximately 30 staff from each business dedicated to the WA Schools Public Private Partnership initiative and they will bring more knowledge and experience back to the parent companies as they return.

The four primary schools and seven stages of secondary schools are spread all around the outskirts of the metropolitan area in suburbs experiencing large population growth.

On Friday 9 December 2016 the first four Primary Schools were handed over on their original contracted dates for occupation by the Department of Education marking a remarkable achievement in just 14 months. These schools are the first in WA to be delivered under a PPP arrangement and will accept their first students in February 2017.