Science Hall

A long ground-floor corridor in the maths block at Macquarie Boys Technology High School sits in the kind of silence that takes years to accumulate. Photographed in 2015, a blue plastic chair holds a rolled-up sheet of paper on its seat at the near end, with broken glass and loose paper sheeting across the concrete floor behind it. A large metal cabinet sits mid-corridor under a layer of debris, and graffiti reading 1G marks a door further down. The school itself had a long run before it reached this point. It began as Parramatta Intermediate High School in 1920, operating in Parramatta. The name changed to Parramatta Junior High School in January 1944 when it was established as a separate school with its own principal, then to Macquarie Boys' High School in 1955. At the end of 1957, the school relocated to a purpose-built campus at Rydalmere, a post-war government school built to the standard institutional typology of the NSW Government Architect's Branch: brick and concrete construction, single- and double-storey classroom blocks, covered walkways. In 1989, the word "Technology" was added to the name to reflect a shift in curriculum emphasis. By 2007, enrolments had fallen to 220 students. The NSW Education Minister announced closure on 23 August 2007. Years 7 to 10 were discontinued from the start 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 the photograph records is what came after: nine years of vacancy between closure and demolition, during which the campus accumulated vandalism, graffiti, and the particular disorder of a place that has been entered many times without any clear purpose. This corridor is one frame from that period. The cabinet is still there. The lights are not going back on. All structures on the site were demolished by November 2018.