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 112-hectare (277-acre) Hurlstone Agricultural campus includes classroom blocks, an operational farm, sporting facilities and student accommodation.
Contents
History
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).
Hurlstone Agricultural Continuation School
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 southwest of Sydney (between Liverpool and Campbelltown) and adjacent to Glenfield railway station. 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.
Macarthur Agricultural High School; co-educational enrolment
For a brief period in the early 1940s, it was known as Macarthur Agricultural High School in honour of wool-grower 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.
Sale of school farmland
In 2008, the New South Wales Government declared 140 hectares of Hurlstone's farmland "surplus" and proposed the sale of the land, leaving the school with just 20 hectares. The announcement was met with immediate public protest and the formation of a local community group Save Hurlstone Educational and Agricultural Property (SHEAP) eventuating in a government inquiry into the proposed sale and proceeds of the sale. There was further pressure against the plans when the National Trust heritage listed the school in late 2009. 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.
On 18 November 2015, there was another proposal to sell the land the school and its farm operated on.
Population
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
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
Subjects
Year 7
All subjects are mandatory.
Agriculture
English
Geography
History
Mathematics
Music
PDHPE
Science
Technology Mandatory
Visual Arts
Wellbeing
Year 8
All subjects are mandatory.
Agriculture
English
Geography
History
Japanese
Mathematics
Music
PDHPE
Science
Technology Mandatory
Visual Arts
Year 9
All subjects are mandatory unless stated otherwise.
Agriculture
Commerce (Elective)
Computer Technology (Elective)
English
Food Technology (Elective)
Geography
History
Elective History
Industrial Technology (Elective)
Japanese (Elective)
Mathematics
Elective Music
PDHPE
PASS (Elective)
Photographic and Digital Media (Elective)
Psychology (Elective)
Science
Textiles Technology (Elective)
Visual Arts (Elective)
Year 10
All subjects are mandatory unless stated otherwise.
Agriculture
Commerce (Elective)
English
Food Technology (Elective)
Geography
History
Hospitality (Elective)
Industrial Technology (Elective)
Computer Technology (Elective)
Japanese (Elective)
Mathematics
Music (Elective)
PDHPE
PASS (Elective)
Photographic and Digital Media (Elective)
Science
Textiles Technology (Elective)
Visual Arts (Elective)
Year 11 (Preliminary)
Everything is an elective except English.
Agriculture
Ancient History
Biology
Business Studies
Ceramics
Chemistry
Economics
Engineering Studies
English
Enterprise Computing
Geography
Health and Movement Science
Hospitality
Japanese
Korean
Legal Studies
Mathematics
Modern History
Music
Photography, Video and Digital Imaging
Physics
SLR
Society & Culture
Studies of Religion
Visual Arts
Year 12 (HSC)
Everything is an elective except English.
Agriculture
Ancient History
Biology
Business Studies
Chemistry
Economics
Engineering Studies
English
Enterprise Computing
Extension History
Geography
Health and Movement Science
Legal Studies
Investigating Science and Extension Science
Japanese
Korean
Mathematics
Modern History
Music
Physics
Studies of Religion
Visual Arts
Demographics
At Hurlstone, as of 2026, only 1% of students have a Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background. At Hurlstone, as of 2026, 9 out of 10 students have a language background other than English. At Hurlstone, as of 2026, 59% of students are boys and 41% are girls. At Hurlstone, as of 2026, more than half the students are at the top quarter of socio-economic advantage in Australia.
Houses
Hurlstone has four houses: Farrer (red), Lachlan [Macquarie] (green), Macarthur (Yellow) and Wentworth (Blue).
Co-curricular Activities
Some examples of co-curricular activities at Hurlstone are:
Cadets
Environment Committee
Interact
Rural Youth
Orchestra
Instrument Tutorials
Events Management Team
Notable alumni
Phil Burton – Australian musician, member of the Australian pop vocal band Human Nature
Alan O. Trounson (1958–1962) – biologist, stem cell researcher and IVF pioneer
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