Expansion and Growth
Continuing growth in student enrolment in the 1980s, coupled with diversified educational and curriculum requirements and a strengthening retention rate, meant additional teaching space was required if St Andrew's was to provide high standards of education. By the middle 1980s enrolment had grown to around 600 students.
In 1984 the School began to examine possible additional sites close to St Andrew's House that could be developed to provide suitable senior secondary school facilities. The decision to seek an alternative site was a wise one although the School's ultimate acquisition of property was not without its delays or difficulties. These difficulties were caused, not by Church intervention which had been the case in the early 1970s, but by the vagaries and commercial demands of the Sydney property market.
The School examined the potential to refurbish the historic Corn Exchange, situated at the bottom of Market Street, for a possible Senior College. The City Council conducted an open tender contest for the building's refurbishment. In a competitive tender situation the School was awarded the contact to redevelop and occupy the site, however, by the third quarter 1984 the School experienced considerable Council delays with the refurbishment programme. A reappraisal of the site revealed distinct operating difficulties because of the building's distance from the School. In addition, considerable uncertainty existed regarding the building's refurbishment costs. Subsequently, and without any prior notice to the School, the City Council rescinded the School's successful tender to refurbish the Corn Exchange. The site was offered to a childcare centre developer although the building was ultimately converted into the international Hotel Nikko, Darling Harbour.
After an appraisal process of additional sites on Christmas Eve 1984 the School exchanged title to a free-standing building, Arcus House, 247 Sussex Street, near the Druitt Street intersection on what is now the multi-storey Nestle Building on Darling Walk. The School planned to demolish the existing building and construct a dedicated, seven storey Senior College. During 1985 considerable design work was finalised for the new redevelopment project.
During the final design phase in November 1985 the Sussex Street site was compulsorily resumed by the Darling Harbour Authority as part of the State Government's proposed expansion and redevelopment of the entire Darling Harbour foreshore area which included a possible casino. The School received 24 hours notice prior to the resumption act being gazetted by the Government. This unprecedented resumption forced the School to recommence its facility requirements and, yet again, commence a site selection process.
After considerable evaluation of its development options and a thorough investigation of numerous sites, during 1986 the School progressively acquired three adjoining commercial properties on the south-east corner of Sussex and Druitt Streets. These sites were purchased from the Department of Main Roads, Seakist Foods and Patricks Stevedoring. The delay caused by the site resumption, resultant compensation claims against the Darling Harbour Authority and the conceptualisation of senior students' learning needs delayed the senior college expansion programme. As a result senior students were required to occupy rented floors in the Fletcher Building, opposite the School in Kent Street, for nearly four years.
While the School commenced the complex task of designing a school-only facility onto the three sites it was apparent that the development costs would exceed the School's financial capacity to sustain a school-only construction. The School commenced discussions with various building consortiums to possibly construct a mixed development comprising a commercial office block with the School occupying three lower floors and having its own entrance lobby. This planning proposal resolved cost and project development uncertainties and protected the School from assuming property development risks. The mixed development meant the School would contribute its land parcels into the ultimate construction in return for owning completed education facilities to be build by the developer.
Ultimately two smaller adjoining sites were amalgamated onto the Druitt/Sussex Streets parcel. Architectural and construction agreements were eventually finalised during 1988. Southern International Development Corporation, a medium sized property development company, acquired the sites and constructed the thirteen-storey commercial building at 51 Druitt Street. Legal and financial agreements were signed in December 1988 and demolition and excavation commenced early in 1989. Under the agreements the School acquired strata ownership of the lower three floors which were fitted out with modern educational facilities. An option to acquire a fourth level was not exercised by the School Council. (This level was subsequently acquired by the School Foundation in 1999 but remained tenanted until mid-2003.) The Bishop Barry Senior Secondary Centre was opened in July 1991 by the Premier of NSW, The Hon Nick Greiner, to teach approximately 300 students in Years 10 to 12.
During the early 1980s the School recognised the need to complement and balance its city-orientated educational programme with a wider rural perspective. The School commenced outdoor education in 1982 using hired properties while it investigated possible purchase of its own outdoor education campsite. Early in 1984 the School purchased a 100 acre (40 ha) rural property in the Southern Highlands of NSW at Penrose near Moss Vale which was called Kirrikee. This name is a derivation from an Aboriginal word for 'whistling kite', a bird that frequents the district.
In the intervening years Kirrikee has been developed into a recognised centre of excellence for outdoor education. Its innovative programmes are integral to the education of all St Andrew's students. A second adjoining lot of 40 hectares was purchased in 1986 taking the School's total rural holding to around 90 hectares. Accommodation and amenities have been steadily built on the site to support the outdoor education programme. In 1984 the land at Penrose was the first property purchased in the School's then 99-year history.
