Science Class

The laboratory benches at Macquarie Boys Technology High School still hold their equipment. Beakers and test tubes sit in place, coated in years of dust. Chairs are overturned across the floor and textbooks lie where they fell, some face-down, some splayed open. Whatever ended here ended without a tidy conclusion. Macquarie Boys Technology High School occupied a purpose-built campus on the corner of Kissing Point Road and James Ruse Drive in Rydalmere, constructed at the end of 1957. The school had a longer history before that, operating from Macquarie Street in Parramatta under earlier names dating back to 1920, becoming Macquarie Boys' High School in 1955 before relocating to the new campus. 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, with projections of 180 for the following year. NSW Education Minister John Della Bosca announced the school's closure in August 2007. 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 campus then sat vacant for nine years. Three separate fires, in July 2016, May 2017, and April 2018, destroyed buildings across the site. Vandalism and graffiti accumulated across the institutional brick surfaces. In late April 2018, the NSW Department of Education approved full demolition. By November 2018, all structures had been cleared. This photograph, made in 2015, records the science classroom before the fires that followed. The equipment is still on the bench. The room is intact. The building would not survive another three years.