Do you have to pay for a place at all high schools in Australia?

When we lived in WA, the local high school had an annual fee of approx AUD4500. Is this a typcial charge?

State high schools in WA shouldn't be charging anywhere near that amount and if you were told that I think you were misinformed. You would have to pay for books, uniform, voluntary contributions and subject levies. The only visa holders paying fees would be the holders of Student Visas.

I am sure this is the case all around Australia.

In NSW and ACT temporary visa holders pay between $4.5 and 12k pa.

Fee paying schools will generally be in the range $4-20kpa but government schools generally only sting you for the voluntary contributions $100 per term give or take, plus extra lessons, visiting teachers, excursions, performances, subject consumables etc

I hadn't realized that there were state high schools - not just fee paying.

Is there much difference in the standard of education received from state vs fee paying high school?

Northernbird, when we lived in Burns Beach, we looked at Lake Joondalup and Quinns Baptist high schools. Where was the local state high school?

Kinross College which is years 6-10 and the Mindarie Senior College for years 11 and 12. It varies greatly in the state system as it does in the private system.

Here's the Dept of Education list of Schools. (Use the advanced search function to find schools by suburb etc)

http://www.det.wa.edu.au/schoolsonline/home.do

Also here..... search by suburb and get info on all schools.
http://www.myschool.edu.au/