The government announced plans in 2015 to move the selective Hurlstone Agricultural High School, at Glenfield, in Sydney’s south west, to a new purpose-built $35M building on the University of Western Sydney campus, at Richmond, in the north west.
Some of the school’s farmland of about 150 hectares, on a prime site adjacent to Glenfield station, would be controversially sold off as part of the Glenfield Priority Precinct Plan, which aimed to build at least 11,000 homes in the area.
Work on the UWS site was due to begin early this year for a 2021 opening.
NSW Government plans to establish a new Centre of Excellence in Agriculture Education and embed it within the Hawkesbury campus “AgriPark” agricultural precinct.
The model includes an upgrade to Richmond High School facilities to deliver upgraded facilities focused on the delivery of agricultural education and a new partially selective student intake.
The Hurlstone Agricultural High School would stay at its current Glenfield site as an academically selective, boarding, agricultural high school, keeping its name and receiving an upgrade to boarding facilities.
“This new approach will not just strengthen agricultural education opportunities, it will also foster industry engagement, create broader educational pathways with Western Sydney University and TAFE, and support teacher education in the areas of agriculture and STEM,” said Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell.
Hurlstone Agricultural High School was established in 1907 in the inner-Sydney suburb of Summer Hill and moved to Glenfield, near Campbelltown, in 1926.
