Hurlstone Agricultural High School - History

History

Hurlstone was established as a boys-only school in 1907 in Hurlstone Park, approximately ten kilometres south west of Sydney, at the present site of Trinity Grammar School. The original owner of the land was a teacher, John Kinloch, one of the first graduates of the University of Sydney. He named the land 'Hurlstone Estate', after his mother's maiden name, with the aim of setting up his own school on it.

In those days most students completed their schooling after primary school and students at 'Hurlstone Agricultural Continuation School' (as it was known at the time) studied there for only two years. In 1926 the school moved to its present site in Glenfield, approximately 42 km south-west of Sydney (between Liverpool and Campbelltown) and serviced by the Main Southern Railway. By then its student numbers had grown from 30 in 1907, to 148. The school supported government policy to promote productivity in the agricultural sector through the training of boys in all aspects of agricultural sciences and farm management.

For a brief period in the 1940s it was known as 'Macarthur Agricultural High School' in honour of woolgrower John Macarthur, but it soon reverted to its previous name.

Hurlstone was a boys' school until 1979, when the decision was made to become co-educational.

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