La Trobe University will welcome 70 Indigenous undergraduate students in 2017, up from just 43 last year. Five more First Australians will take on postgraduate studies too. 

Data from the state’s education department shows the number of Indigenous people in Bendigo government schools is also on the rise. 

In 2016, 446.5 full-time equivalent Indigenous students attended state schools inside the municipality.  

It was the sixth consecutive year the figure improved, up from 306 in 2010.

Bendigo and District Aboriginal Co-operative chief executive officer Raylene Harradine said the numbers were proof support for young Indigenous people was beginning to change their attitudes towards education. 

“We are getting there,” the community leader said. 

“In the past, a lot of our community have had negative experiences at school and that can reflect on our young people,” she said. 

“But it (education) is important for their confidence.”

La Trobe Indigenous student services officer Mishel McMahon said university was the first time many of the Indigenous students experienced their traditional culture.

Ms McMahon oversees the Jimbeyer Boodjhil unit, which offers cultural and support services to La Trobe’s Indigenous cohort, some of whom came from as far as Benalla, Mildura and Wycheproof to study at the central Victorian university. 

“We look after the students’ whole self, and they look after each other, too,” she said, explaining university could be daunting for newcomers. 

“We’re a family here and we talk about everything.” 

But despite 4000 more Indigenous young people enrolled in Victorian government schools now than in 2010, Year 12 graduation rates were still low.  

While 1100 indigenous students were enrolled in Prep classes last year, just half that number graduated Year 12. 

Ms Harradine expected those numbers to improve, with dedicated supports for year 11 and 12 Indigenous students in place to guide them through the experience of VCE and VCAL.

“Its a bit of a cobweb with everyone working around the one aim: if we get our kids to school, they're going to go further.”