New school at Hurlstone Agricultural High’s site at Glenfield honours a distinguished alumni
A new selective high school at Glenfield to replace Hurlstone Agricultural High School after it relocates to Hawkesbury in three years, will be named in honour of a distinguished alumni, the noted veterinarian and agricultural scientist Roy Watts.
Macarthur
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- Hurlstone Agricultural High School buildings will be demolished, prompting outrage from a local MP
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A NEW selective high school at Glenfield to replace Hurlstone Agricultural High School after it relocates to Hawkesbury in three years will be named in honour of a distinguished alumni, the noted veterinarian and agricultural scientist Roy Watts.
Roy Watts High School will come into operation in January 2023 with an estimated 1080 students, or 180 in each year from Year 7 to 12.
A ceremony to announce the endorsement of the new name of Roy Watts High School was held today at the Glenfield site and in attendance were Mr Watt’s family members including his daughter Dianne.
Dianne Watts said the naming of the future Roy Watts High School was a wonderful honour bestowed on her father, who graduated from Hurlstone in 1932.
“He would be overwhelmed. Hurlstone meant everything to him and he enjoyed his days at Hurlstone,’’ Ms Watts said.
Ms Watts said her father often spoke of the friendships with his class mates and his wonderful memories of his time at Hurlstone.
Mr Watts and his wife Alison’s ashes are also buried in the Clarke House Rose Garden at Hurlstone, which is also located on Roy Watts Rd as a further testament to its former student.
Hurlstone principal Daryl Currie said today’s event was held to announce that NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes had endorsed the new name of the Roy Watts High School.
Mr Currie said the new name was a recognition of a Hurlstonian who has left a legacy to agriculture, education and the Glenfield area.
He said like many products of Hurlstone, Mr Watts made the world beyond the school a better place.
“There is no doubt that the most mentioned alumnus is John Edmondson VC, and he has already
received the honour of a school in his name,’’ Mr Currie said.
“I put it to you that John Edmondson VC performed one heroic act that defined his life and his effect on others but Roy Watts had a life of acts which helped to define a career, an academic discipline, an entire industry and now his legacy will define a school community.
“That is why it is fitting and appropriate that as of 2023 this place is named after Roy Mervyn Watts.’’
The name was chosen after a community consultation process in 2015 and honours Mr Watts, who went to Glenfield Primary School, Hurlstone and then to study veterinary science at Sydney University before rising to become the Director General of the Department of Agriculture.
He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 1980.
As reported in the Macarthur Chronicle, Hurlstone will move to Hawkesbury in 2020 and 140ha of the Glenfield site will be sold off for housing despite strong opposition from the local community and a Save Hurlstone campaign.
Mr Currie said from 2020 both Hurlstone at Hawkesbury and Glenfield would operate as part of a transition period which will continue in 2021-22 before the new school at Glenfield would become Roy Watts High School in 2023.
Mr Currie said Roy Watts High would remain a selective and co-educational school.
“Agriculture will still be offered at Roy Watts High School but it will not be mandatory,’’ he said.
Macquarie Fields State Labor MP Anoulack Chanthivong said today’s announcement of the ‘endorsement of the name’ Roy Watts High School, to replace Hurlstone Agricultural High School at Glenfield in 2023, acknowledged a great Australian who made a significant and lifelong contribution to agriculture in NSW, both as a scientist and educator.
“I acknowledge his immense contributions to agriculture in our State and his strong ties with Hurlstone at Glenfield,” Mr Chanthivong said.
“My position is, and always has been, that Hurlstone Agricultural High School should remain at its rightful home in Glenfield.
“Its farm should not be sold off to developers and local children should continue to have access to a school whose name is synonymous with excellence in education and agriculture. That name is Hurlstone and the place is Glenfield.”
The Year 7 students who start at Hurlstone Agricultural High School at Glenfield next year will be the first to graduate from Roy Watts High School in 2023.
Over the next few years, Roy Watts High School’s new badge, song, motto and uniform will be chosen.
Also at today’s announcement were noted Hurlstone alumni including Dr Peter Benson.
Hurlstone was established in Ashfield in 1907 to provide practical education for boys interested in a rural career. It moved to Glenfield in March 1926.