Hurlstone Agricultural High School (HAHS, colloquially as Hurlstone Ag) is a government-funded co-educational academically selective and specialist secondary day and boarding school, located in Glenfield, a south-western suburb of Sydney, in the Macarthur region of New South Wales, Australia. HAHS is the oldest government boarding school in New South Wales.
Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School, Yanco Agricultural High School and Hurlstone Agricultural High School are the state's only public selective and agricultural schools that also include a co-educational boarding school. The Hurlstone Agricultural campus includes classroom blocks, an operational farm, sporting facilities and student accommodation.
History
thumb|right|220px|Manual training class, 1913
Hurlstone was established as a boys-only school in 1907 in Hurlstone Park, approximately ten kilometres southwest of Sydney, at the present site of Trinity Grammar School. The land used to be owned by a Pitt St. Minister, Reverend John Graharn, and when he wished to return home to England in 1874, he sold the land to John Kinloch, a teacher and one of the first graduates of the University of Sydney. He named the land Hurlstone Estate, after his mother's maiden name and set up his own school on it in 1878 which he called the Hurlstone School and College.
Four acres (approximately 1.6 hectares) of land were turned into a house, school, cricket and gymnastics ground, and sixteen acres (approximately 6.5 hectares) of land were for recreation and a pony run.
Some of the original subjects at Hurlstone included:
- English Grammar and Composition
- Reading Aloud
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Bookkeeping
- Gymnastics
- Surveying
- French
Resident boarders originally paid 150 pounds per year (not adjusted to inflation). eventuating in a government inquiry into the proposed sale and proceeds of the sale. The government inquiry resulted in a recommendation of the sale of a small parcel of school land with the proceeds intended to help upgrade school facilities.
Principals
thumb|150px|Collectable school cigarette card featuring the Hurlstone colours & crest, [[Wiktionary:circa|c. 1910s]]
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|-
! Ordinal !! Officeholder !! Term start !! Term end !! Time in office !! Notes
|-
| align=center| || Frank McMullen ||align=center| 1907 ||align=center| 1916 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || George Longmuir ||align=center| 1917 ||align=center| 1938 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || Percival Hindmarsh ||align=center| 1939 ||align=center| 1945 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || James McEwan King ||align=center| 1946 ||align=center| 1953 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || Clarence G. James ||align=center| 1954 ||align=center| 1967 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || Reginald W. Clarke ||align=center| 1968 ||align=center| 1978 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || James F. White ||align=center| 1979 ||align=center| 1982 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || G. K. Wilson ||align=center| 1983 ||align=center| 1987 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || R. M. Kidd ||align=center| 1988 ||align=center| 2003 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || John Norris ||align=center| 2003 ||align=center| 2010 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || Kerrie Wratten ||align=center| 2011 ||align=center| 2013 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || Daryl Currie ||align=center| 2014 ||align=center| 2018 ||align=right| years ||
|-
| align=center| || Christine Castle ||align=center| 2018 ||align=center| 2025|| align="right" | years ||
|}
Population
thumb|The boarding school at sunset. Several dormitories, a kitchen, and dining room are visible.
Enrolment at the school is dependent on selective examinations of Year 6 students from across the state. New students coming in later grades have to sit a similar exam.
As of 2026, 934 students are enrolled at HAHS.
Campus
thumb|right|The school maintains a dairy with a milking herd of 38-45 cows and approximately 60 heifers, dry cows and calves.
Hurlstone features a fully functional farm and a commercial dairy. Animals on the farm include: beef and dairy cattle, sheep, horses, pigs, and chickens. Clarke House is a heritage listed building which houses Hurlstone's memorabilia museum.
The school also hosts a memorial forest and cairn on Roy Watts Road, past the boarding school. Established in 1950, it is believed to be Australia's first living war memorial, with a gum tree dedicated to each of the 600 students from the school who served in WWI and II. Currently, ANZAC and Remembrance Day ceremonies are held at the memorial forest.
As part of the 2008 mini-budget, the New South Wales Government declared 140 hectares of the school to be surplus to educational needs and the land will be sold in 2011. However, due to a strong public protest against this action, an inquiry was led into process of selling approximately seven-eighths of the school. As a result, Mal Peters, the Inquiry Chair, recommended the school's agricultural sector to be upgraded in order to reflect current industry practice and standards due to it being an economic, wise and important public investment for the people of NSW as it supplies young scientists with the knowledge for the ever declining, but demanding agricultural sector of the world.
In 2020 a new school called Hurlstone Agricultural High School was to open at Western Sydney University, Hawkesbury. The existing school in Glenfield would be renamed Roy Watts High School (after Hurlstone alumnus Roy Watts) and would remain fully selective but would no longer be an agricultural school. However, this decision was cancelled in December 2019. The farm land would have been converted to a new public school as well as housing and a shopping centre.
Academics
NAPLAN Results
{| class="wikitable"
|+2023
!Subject
!Year 7
!Year 9
|-
|Reading
|670
|670
|-
|Writing
|627
|682
|-
|Spelling
|655
|677
|-
|Grammar
|684
|689
|-
|Numeracy
|714
|744
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+2024
!Subject
!Year 7
!Year 9
|-
|Reading
|662 (-8)
|679 (+9)
|-
|Writing
|645 (+18)
|672 (-10)
|-
|Spelling
|655 (+0)
|676 (-1)
|-
|Grammar
|682 (-2)
|703 (+14)
|-
|Numeracy
|715 (+1)
|734 (-10)
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+2025
!Subject
!Year 7
!Year 9
|-
|Reading
|662 (+0)
|684 (+5)
|-
|Writing
|647 (+2)
|682 (+10)
|-
|Spelling
|665 (+10)
|682 (+6)
|-
|Grammar
|696 (+14)
|713 (+10)
|-
|Numeracy
|720 (+5)
|753 (+19)
|}
HSC Results
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!State Rank
!Success Rate
|-
|2009
|17th
|38.87%
|-
|2010
|21st
|38%
|-
|2011
|26th
|33.33%
|-
|2012
|20th
|37.25%
|-
|2013
|24th
|33.8%
|-
|2014
|24th
|36.6%
|-
|2015
|23rd
|35.5%
|-
|2016
|34th
|30.22%
|-
|2017
|44th
|29.09%
|-
|2018
|31st
|30.1%
|-
|2019
|26th
|35.48%
|-
|2020
|33rd
|30.98%
|-
|2021
|40th
|29.65%
|-
|2022
|43rd
|27.63%
|-
|2023
|39th
|29.19%
|-
|2024
|44th
|28.56%
|-
|2025
|43rd
|29.39%
|}
Subjects
Year 7
All subjects are mandatory.
Houses
Hurlstone has four houses: Farrer (red), Lachlan [Macquarie] (green), Macarthur (Yellow) and Wentworth (Blue).
Military
- Mark Binskin – Chief of the Defence Force (CDF) Australia.
- John Hurst Edmondson – soldier in World War II; the Hurlstone school hall is named in his honour
- Sir William Keys – National Secretary of RSL
Politics, public service and the law
- John Kerin – Australian Labor Party politician, former Federal Treasurer (1991), Minister for Transport and Communications (1991), Minister for Primary Industries and Energy (1983-1991) and Member for Werriwa
- Mark Latham – politician, former Leader of the Australian Labor Party
- Dick Klugman – Member for the federal seat of Prospect 1969–1990, Co-founder of NSW Council for Civil Liberties;
Sport
- David Lyons – rugby union player, Wallabies
- Charles Melton – winemaker
See also
- List of Government schools in New South Wales
- List of selective high schools in New South Wales
- List of boarding schools in Australia