Hurlstone Agricultural High School: Construction of boarding facility upgrades, new farm hub underway

More than three years after controversial plans to relocate Glenfield’s Hurlstone Agricultural High School were ditched, the major upgrades promised in place are underway. Find out what is being built.

Construction has started on a $43m project at Hurlstone Agricultural School.

An multimillion-dollar upgrade to improve facilities at Hurlstone Agricultural High School is underway, more than three years after controversial plans to relocate the school were ditched.

The plans were first mooted in 2019 as part of the state government’s vision to ensure students from across NSW had access to purpose-built places to study agriculture in their high school years.

The aim was to help provide skilled workers for the future of the agricultural industry, a multibillion-dollar industry.

The boarding upgrade for the Glenfield school will deliver 180 student accommodation beds, dormitory monitor rooms, senior and junior common rooms, amenities, overnight accommodation for staff, and permanent staff residences.

There were 42 boarders at Hurlstone Agricultural High School in 2020, so the new facility will see more than four times the amount of students able to live on campus.

The new facility will house 180 students.

According to the NSW Planning Portal, the project’s capital investment cost, approved by Campbelltown Council earlier this year, is $43.76m.

The overall enrolment capacity of the school is 1080, with 985 day and boarding students enrolled in 2020. The overall capacity of the school will remain the same.

Meanwhile, the new farm hub will include a dairy shed, calf, beef and pig sheds, horticulture facilities and co-located learning spaces, commodity sheds and storage facilities, new equipment, and the relocation and reconstruction of the sheep shed and chicken pens.

The boarding facilities are now in the construction phase, while site works for the new farm hub have also commenced, and the project is scheduled for completion in late 2024.

A NSW Department of Education spokesman said the department was working with the school to identify, plan for and manage possible impacts of construction activities.

“The upgrade will provide students with new facilities that better support their education in agriculture, as well as provide new facilities for boarding students,” he said.