History
Caringbah High School, which was split over two campuses, opened in 1960, in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney. Originally only the Southern Campus; the site that this report is based on, existed, but a second northern campus was constructed a few years later to cater for an increasing student population. Both sites were linked by a covered walkway that took five minutes to cross. After the redevelopment the southern site became the main administrative building, and also housed the music, technology and applied science classrooms. All other classes were located on the northern campus.
Caringbah was well known for being a high achieving school and every year – on average – eleven students would achieve 99+, twenty three would achieve 98+, and forty eight 95+. Over 98% of all students would go on to attend university. In view of its success, it later became a selective school in 1989, after being nominated by local authorities.
In 2007 it was discovered that the southern site’s foundations were constructed on unstable clay. Subsequently, a project to consolidate all of the school’s facilities commenced later that year. By 2010, only the northern site remained, and the southern campus soon attracted the mad and the bad. It wasn’t long before the southern campus was heavily vandalised and subject to a number of arson attacks. In 2012, in one of the worst instances, the former school hall was destroyed. Several other fires have occurred throughout the remaining buildings since then.
One of the unique features of the school is that it has attempted to utilise some of the former site, such as the areas where the covered walkway once existed. In this space students and staff have begun to create an Outdoor Learning Centre inside a large pod. The central pod has five smaller ones attached and inside some of these students can engage in bush tucker activities, xeriscaping and meditation. The school has also developed a ‘regeneration area’ on the former driveway that allowed teacher’s to drive between campuses. In this space pre-European plant life has been reintroduced, to increase knowledge about biodiversity and attract indigenous wildlife.
Our Version of Events
After our first day in Sydney proved to be a little disappointing in terms of the exploration we got done we endeavoured to do little bit more research the early the next day, in search of more ‘abandos’ ripe for the picking, and then made use of our Opal cards to get to them. Looking much like the other tourists around us, we blended in nicely. However, after arriving at our first site of the day we soon discovered that it was heavily graffitied and halfway through being demolished. It wasn’t a good start, but we continued on our journey to Caringbah High School anyway.
The next hiccup… we managed to miss the station we were supposed to get off at and ended up at the end of the line, where we promptly walked off the train and straight onto one that would take us back up the line. That’s what happens when you start to drink a couple of bevvies in the middle of the day! An hour later than expected we arrived outside the former gates of the school. Needless to say, it looked shit. Once again, like every other one we’d seen so far, this abandoned building was covered head to toe in graff; the shit pubescent sort of scrawl, not the fine artwork we’re used to seeing across Sheffield. Nevertheless, rather than turn around and head for the next explore, we decided to get out of the sun for a wee while and take a look around.
Inside, the building is just as fucked as it looks from the exterior. There was graff absolutely everywhere, even in the places you’d imagine it would be impossible to etch a marking. This too, like the other building we’d visited earlier that day, seemed to be in the middle of being demolished. As a result, most of the first building we entered was entirely stripped. We were shocked then when we passed through the second block and actually found physical remnants that proved this building was indeed a former educational facility. We spent a bit more time wandering through the few remaining classrooms, imagining how shit it probably was sitting indoors in the heat we were experiencing. By now we were getting a little more used to the idea that dangerous creatures (i.e. spiders) wander the corridors, and every other place imaginable, in Australia, so compared to our last explore we were a lot more chilled. Having said that, we had had a beer…
Explored with Ford Mayhem.
Caringbah High School, which was split over two campuses, opened in 1960, in the Sutherland Shire of Sydney. Originally only the Southern Campus; the site that this report is based on, existed, but a second northern campus was constructed a few years later to cater for an increasing student population. Both sites were linked by a covered walkway that took five minutes to cross. After the redevelopment the southern site became the main administrative building, and also housed the music, technology and applied science classrooms. All other classes were located on the northern campus.
Caringbah was well known for being a high achieving school and every year – on average – eleven students would achieve 99+, twenty three would achieve 98+, and forty eight 95+. Over 98% of all students would go on to attend university. In view of its success, it later became a selective school in 1989, after being nominated by local authorities.
In 2007 it was discovered that the southern site’s foundations were constructed on unstable clay. Subsequently, a project to consolidate all of the school’s facilities commenced later that year. By 2010, only the northern site remained, and the southern campus soon attracted the mad and the bad. It wasn’t long before the southern campus was heavily vandalised and subject to a number of arson attacks. In 2012, in one of the worst instances, the former school hall was destroyed. Several other fires have occurred throughout the remaining buildings since then.
One of the unique features of the school is that it has attempted to utilise some of the former site, such as the areas where the covered walkway once existed. In this space students and staff have begun to create an Outdoor Learning Centre inside a large pod. The central pod has five smaller ones attached and inside some of these students can engage in bush tucker activities, xeriscaping and meditation. The school has also developed a ‘regeneration area’ on the former driveway that allowed teacher’s to drive between campuses. In this space pre-European plant life has been reintroduced, to increase knowledge about biodiversity and attract indigenous wildlife.
Our Version of Events
After our first day in Sydney proved to be a little disappointing in terms of the exploration we got done we endeavoured to do little bit more research the early the next day, in search of more ‘abandos’ ripe for the picking, and then made use of our Opal cards to get to them. Looking much like the other tourists around us, we blended in nicely. However, after arriving at our first site of the day we soon discovered that it was heavily graffitied and halfway through being demolished. It wasn’t a good start, but we continued on our journey to Caringbah High School anyway.
The next hiccup… we managed to miss the station we were supposed to get off at and ended up at the end of the line, where we promptly walked off the train and straight onto one that would take us back up the line. That’s what happens when you start to drink a couple of bevvies in the middle of the day! An hour later than expected we arrived outside the former gates of the school. Needless to say, it looked shit. Once again, like every other one we’d seen so far, this abandoned building was covered head to toe in graff; the shit pubescent sort of scrawl, not the fine artwork we’re used to seeing across Sheffield. Nevertheless, rather than turn around and head for the next explore, we decided to get out of the sun for a wee while and take a look around.
Inside, the building is just as fucked as it looks from the exterior. There was graff absolutely everywhere, even in the places you’d imagine it would be impossible to etch a marking. This too, like the other building we’d visited earlier that day, seemed to be in the middle of being demolished. As a result, most of the first building we entered was entirely stripped. We were shocked then when we passed through the second block and actually found physical remnants that proved this building was indeed a former educational facility. We spent a bit more time wandering through the few remaining classrooms, imagining how shit it probably was sitting indoors in the heat we were experiencing. By now we were getting a little more used to the idea that dangerous creatures (i.e. spiders) wander the corridors, and every other place imaginable, in Australia, so compared to our last explore we were a lot more chilled. Having said that, we had had a beer…
Explored with Ford Mayhem.
1: Caringbah High School
2: Caringbah High School
3: Storage Room
4: Old Photographs and Documentation
5: Old Storage Cupboards and More Photographs
6: Wooden Dummy
7: The Jonathan Hughes Memorial Shitter (Thought Hamtagger would appreciate this one)
8: Classic High School Toilets
9: Locker Problems
10: Science Focus
11: Classroom in the Site Being Demolished
12: Corridors Blocked by Lockers
13: Surviving Classroom
14: Classroom 2
15: Classroom 3
16: Classroom 4
17: Classroom 5
18: Former Administration Office
19: Let's Learn Japanese
20: Music Class
21: Main Corridor
22: Healthy Eating Promotion Poster
23: Larger Corridor in Site Being Demolished
24: Take in the Graff
25: Main Staircase
2: Caringbah High School
3: Storage Room
4: Old Photographs and Documentation
5: Old Storage Cupboards and More Photographs
6: Wooden Dummy
7: The Jonathan Hughes Memorial Shitter (Thought Hamtagger would appreciate this one)
8: Classic High School Toilets
9: Locker Problems
10: Science Focus
11: Classroom in the Site Being Demolished
12: Corridors Blocked by Lockers
13: Surviving Classroom
14: Classroom 2
15: Classroom 3
16: Classroom 4
17: Classroom 5
18: Former Administration Office
19: Let's Learn Japanese
20: Music Class
21: Main Corridor
22: Healthy Eating Promotion Poster
23: Larger Corridor in Site Being Demolished
24: Take in the Graff
25: Main Staircase
