Hurlstone Agricultural High School buildings will be demolished, prompting outrage from a local MP
The dismantling of Hurlstone Agricultural High School has begun with the Sydney South West Planning Panel approving the demolition of some of the school’s buildings this week.
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The dismantling of Hurlstone Agricultural High School has begun with the Sydney South West Planning Panel approving the demolition of some of the school’s buildings this week.
Buildings including the agricultural science labs and staffroom and the boilermakers cottage will be demolished to make way for a new classroom block containing six learning spaces, five science labs and other new workshops.
It will take the school’s student numbers from 948 to 1080 ahead of the sell-off of 140ha of the Hurlstone site for housing and the school’s move to Hawkesbury in 2020.
A smaller selective school will remain at the Glenfield site.
Macquarie Fields state Labor MP Anoulack Chanthivong said the panel’s approval of the plans was the first step in the removal of the Macarthur region’s leading public high school from the area.
In November 2015, the State Government announced it would relocate Hurlstone to the Western Sydney University’s Hawkesbury campus in 2020 and sell-off its land, sparking a community outcry.
“This development application can’t be seen in isolation from the Liberal party’s plan to sell Hurlstone’s farmland,” Mr Chanthivong said.
“It’s the first domino to fall and it has started the demise and desecration of Hurlstone Agricultural High School.
“Hurlstone’s farm land is an important green belt and separates our region.
“We need to stop development on that green belt.
“You only have to drive around the area to see all the development already eating up our open space.”
Hurlstone 2016 graduate and Campbelltown Young Citizen of the Year Adam Herman said it would be a sad day if Hurlstone’s agricultural land ended up in the hands of developers.
“Agriculture was a compulsory subject from years 7 to 10 and I think it was great for us to get that knowledge we otherwise wouldn’t have had,” he said. “On the one hand I’m excited to see students have access to new facilities and if there is going to be development it’s important that they have a high school and primary school here.
“But the green space is what the school is known for and we’re losing so much of it these days.”
The sale of the Hurlstone land will make way for up to 10,000 new homes in the region. A fully selective 1500-student school at the Hawkesbury will start enrolling students from 2020.
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