Playground Walkway

The concrete walkway in this photograph was a daily fact of life for the students who passed through Macquarie Boys Technology High School in Rydalmere. Covered walkways of this kind were standard in the NSW Government Architect's Branch school typology of the 1950s, built to move students between classroom blocks in all weather. By 2015, when this photograph was made, the walkway had been unused for six years. Weeds had pushed through the cracked concrete. White seed heads crowded the foreground, their papery clusters catching the soft light against the concrete receding between dark metal pillars. The sunlight falling across the scene made no distinction between what the place had been and what it had become. The school's history on this site began when the campus at the corner of Kissing Point Road and James Ruse Drive was occupied at the end of 1957. The institution itself was older, tracing back through several name changes to post-primary classes operating on Macquarie Street, Parramatta, from 1920. The Rydalmere campus was purpose-built for what was then Macquarie Boys' High School. In 1989, "Technology" was added to the name, reflecting a shift in curriculum emphasis. By 2007, enrolments had fallen to 220 students. NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca announced the school's closure on 23 August that year. Years 7 to 10 were discontinued at the start of 2008. The remaining Year 11 and 12 students completed their HSC, and the school closed permanently at the end of 2009. The site then entered a long bureaucratic limbo. A proposed replacement college never eventuated. Three fires broke out across the vacancy period, including one that gutted the main hall in July 2016 and another that destroyed a further building in May 2017. All remaining structures were demolished between August and November 2018. The playground in this photograph no longer exists.