First Aid Kit

The first aid kit is still on the wall. Label faded, contents undisturbed, mounted in the same spot it occupied when the school was running. It is the kind of object that becomes invisible in a functioning building, noticed only when something goes wrong. Here, nothing has gone wrong in the ordinary sense. The building simply emptied and stayed that way. Macquarie Boys Technology High School operated on its Rydalmere campus from 1958 until the end of 2009. The school had a longer institutional history than that: its origins traced back to post-primary boys' classes in Parramatta dating to 1920, with several name changes along the way before the campus at the corner of Kissing Point Road and James Ruse Drive was purpose-built in the late 1950s. The word "Technology" was added to the name in 1989, reflecting a shift in curriculum emphasis toward trade and technical skills. By 2007, enrolments had fallen to 220 students. The NSW Education Minister announced closure that August. Years 7 to 10 were discontinued from the beginning of 2008, with the remaining Year 11 and 12 students staying on to complete their HSC. The school closed permanently at the end of 2009. What followed was nine years of vacancy. The campus sat within a broader government-owned site, maintained but unused, while proposals for alternative educational use came and went without result. Three separate fires broke out across the site between 2016 and 2018. By late 2018, all structures had been demolished. This photograph was made in 2015, roughly six years into that vacancy. The campus was still standing. The first aid kit was still on the wall. Its presence in a gutted, abandoned school is not dramatic so much as plain: an object kept ready for a need that never came again after the students left.