Gas Taps

The taps are still there. Chrome faucets line the worn laboratory bench in a row, their controls intact but filmed with grime. The bench surface is worn and marked, the kind of wear that comes from decades of notebooks, pencil cases and elbows rather than any single event. Broken glass and an open textbook share the surface, the pages still spread. The room is emptied out but for the fittings, and the fittings are still exactly where they were installed. Macquarie Boys Technology High School occupied a purpose-built campus on the corner of Kissing Point Road and James Ruse Drive in Rydalmere, on a site of approximately 10 hectares. The school relocated to this campus at the end of 1957, having operated under earlier names in Parramatta since 1920. It became Macquarie Boys High School in 1955, and in 1989 the word Technology was added to reflect a shift in curriculum emphasis. The buildings were constructed in the post-war institutional style typical of the NSW Government Architect's Branch during the 1950s: brick and concrete, classroom wings with covered walkways, built for function rather than ornament. By 2007, enrolments had fallen to around 220 students and were projected to decline further. The NSW Education Minister announced closure in August 2007. Years 7 to 10 were discontinued at the beginning of 2008, and the school closed permanently at the end of 2009. A proposal to establish Lachlan Macquarie College on the site, with University of Western Sydney taking up the lease, did not proceed. The campus sat vacant. Three separate fires struck the buildings between 2016 and 2018. All structures were demolished by November 2018. This photograph was made in 2015, while the campus still stood. The chrome taps record a science room mid-sentence, the fittings intact, the work long gone.