Thalgarrah Environmental Education Centre

Think - Feel - Act

Telephone02 6775 1736

Emailthalgarrah-e.school@det.nsw.edu.au

History of Thalgarrah

Thalgarrah Environmental Education Centre opened in January 1976 on the site of the former Thalgarrah Public School initially as a Field Studies Centre (FSC).

Thalgarrah Public School was gazetted in 1898 firstly as a Provisional School. Over the next 75 years the school opened and closed as the fortunes of the surrounding rural district waxed and waned.

Thalgarrah was a provisional school from October 1898 until May 1908. The school then received full public school status from May 1908 continuing until it closed in September 1927.

It was reopened again as a provisional school from May 1947 but only lasted a little over a year closing in June 1948. 

Its final chapter as a public school started in January 1962 finally closing in December 1972 due to falling enrolments.

After the school closed local educators campaigned for the site to be used for the establishment of a field studies centre. The Centre opened its doors at the beginning of 1976 with the same facilities that the former public school had.  Since then the centre has expanded and refurbished its original buildings to meet the needs of its changing role.

In 1999 the Minister for Education changed the name of all existing departmental FSCs to Environmental Education Centres (EECs) to reflect more accurately the role they played in not only conducting fieldwork but also supporting schools and teachers in Environmental Education and more recently in Education for sustainability.