“We’ve had to accommodate the growth of our population and our student population,” he said.

“So that means around Melbourne’s western suburbs, northern suburbs and south-east we’re seeing lots of changes.”

Carroll said families worried about being shut out of their preferred zone would still get priority access to a particular school if one of their children was already a student.

“We do try and keep siblings together. So there is always some flexibility with our zoning and, in particular, with the application process.”

The new boundaries do not apply until 2025, and parents have been urged to continue looking at the 2024 zones when enrolling children for this year.

Opposition education spokeswoman Jess Wilson said Victoria’s population growth needed to be managed carefully.

“That’s something we’re going to be looking at as a team over the coming years to make sure that school zones are providing that choice to parents. And also dealing with the fact that school zones do have an impact on property prices,” she said.

School zoning can be contentious for families, with property price hikes linked to boundaries within sought after areas. They have also created planning headaches in outer-suburban areas as populations boomed.

Accessibility has also been as an issue as unusual boundaries have assigned some children to schools that are not the closest to them geographically.

Experts have encouraged Victoria to use modern technology to calculate zones based on shortest distance by car or public transport, rather than relying on distance “as the crow flies”.

The Allan government says it is on track to open 100 new schools by 2026.

View the rest of the before-and-after maps below.