Science Hall

The Science Hall at Macquarie Boys Technology High School sits in the kind of silence that takes years to accumulate. Photographed in 2015, the room holds broken fluorescent light fittings that hang at angles from the ceiling, lab benches running in rows, and discarded equipment left where it was last set down. Dust coats everything evenly, the way it does in spaces that have not been disturbed for a long time. The school itself had a long run before it reached this point. It began as Parramatta Intermediate High School in 1920, operating on Macquarie Street 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. In 1957, the school relocated to a purpose-built campus on the corner of Kissing Point Road and Rydalmere Avenue in North Parramatta, 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. The Science Hall is one frame from that period. The lab benches are still there. The lights are not going back on. All structures on the site were demolished by November 2018.