Meeting the needs of the school community in the Australian context in current times has become a complex task, due to substantial school restructuring over the last three decades. More and more, schools are required to engage, and be accountable for developing programs that address the needs of the school community, while satisfying accountability structures of the central office. This article provides an analysis of the dominant and, at times, competing discourses of school-based management in Australia over the last three decades, couched within the neo-corporate bureaucratic paradigm in which educational leaders are currently operating. It suggests that it is within this complex space that inter-institutional networks and alliances have not only become necessary but, in some cases, have flourished. One particular Education Alliance is examined here as a representative of the possible local solutions being sought by schools. Finally, this article foregrounds education alliances and networks as a possible fourth discourse of devolution. (Contains 5 notes and 1 figure.)