Hurlstone Agricultural High School’s annual Country Fair and Farm Open Day will celebrate its 80th year when it’s held this Saturday, September 7.
It is an annual tradition that has been bringing a touch of the country to suburban South West Sydney for eight decades.
But its days could be numbered because Hurlstone Agricultural High School will be relocated to the Hawkesbury campus of Western Sydney University in the next few years.
And Hurlstone Farm – home of the Country Fair – will be turned over to new housing, putting the annual event under threat of extinction.
This year could also be one of the last times cows are spotted at the Country Fair.
There are currently 107 cows at the Glenfield school.
The cows will be dispersed as part of the transition of Hurlstone Agricultural High School to the Hawkesbury, and the establishment of Roy Watts High School at Glenfield.
The cows will either be sold, gifted or slaughtered depending on the number and condition of the cows in 2023.
Someone who hasn’t given up hope is local MP Anoulack Chanthivong, the Member for Macquarie Fields (pictured above), who says the State Liberal Government is to blame after its decision in 2015 to sell-off the Hurlstone Farm to developers.
The decision formed part of a deal the government struck with Western Sydney University in late 2015 to move Hurlstone Agricultural High School from its current home at Glenfield to the Hawkesbury.
Since then Mr Chanthivong has been fighting to save the Hurlstone Farm and retain the school at Glenfield.
He accuses the government of failing to say how many rooftops will replace the green open space at Hurlstone, nor has it disclosed the proposed heights of high rise flats set to block the Glenfield skyline.
Mr Chanthivong says he wants to see the government’s contentious precinct plans, which include high rise flats at Glenfield, ripped up.
He argues Hurlstone Agricultural High School has a long and proud tradition at Glenfield, and the government’s sell-off of the Hurlstone Farm is nothing more than a greedy land grab.
“Not only is our community set to lose one of the best schools in NSW, and one of the only fully functioning urban farms in south west Sydney, we are now also set to lose one of our greatest and proudest traditions in the Hurlstone Country Fair,” says Mr Chanthivong.
“When the farm gate finally shuts on the Hurlstone Country Fair, it will be the end of an era and our community will mourn its loss.
“It’s not fair that kids from our region are being robbed of this opportunity to gain a real taste of the country – second only to Sydney’s Royal Easter Show.
“Just as it’s not fair that we are set to lose an educational icon and precious green space is set to be destroyed for overdevelopment, congestion, and more concrete and tar,” Mr Chanthivong said.
Mr Chanthivong wrote to NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell in May to request a meeting to discuss the future of Hurlstone Agricultural High School at Glenfield.
The minister has not yet set a meeting date.
“The Hurlstone Farm and the school belong at Glenfield,” says Mr Chanthivong.
As an alumni of Hurlstone (a long time ago); it’s good to see an article that covers some of the issues honestly-canvassed surrounding the State Government’s greedy money-grab of this historic and unique site.
As another former fellow-student, Mark Latham pointed-out, this shameless decision will deny future students in south-west Sydney the educational opportunities that the lazy, sell-out National Party Parliamentary members; who by any rights should have been up in arms about; use their parliamentary entitlement to pay for their own privileged children at exclusive GPS schools!
David Dixon.