Yanco Agricultural High School celebrated its centenary and family day at the college grounds last weekend.
The event was limited to current families and invited guests only as the 2023 Gala Day next March will be open to the wider community with a focus being on 100 plus 1 celebrations that will also include an Old Yanconians Reunion Dinner.
It included fun events such as the Farmers Challenge as well as tours and displays of student work.
At midday the official centenary ceremony took place and included a performance by the YAHS drum corps followed by some short speeches and the unveiling of the Centenary Plaque, recognising 100 years of the school.
Opening the celebrations, YAHS Principal Marni Milne gave a history of the college.
She said the establishment of a residential public high school at Yanco in 1922 was the product of several important developments in NSW education and agriculture.
In 1900 the pastoralist Samuel McCaughey purchased North Yanco Station. He constructed a red brick homestead and some 200 miles of irrigation channels to irrigate some 40,000 acres of property.
His death in 1919 saw the last part of his lands revert to government control in 1920. Leeton, a town barely a decade old, had limited education facilities at the beginning of the 1920s, so seeking a local high school that would serve to educate and train future farmers, a group of Leeton citizens approached the NSW Government for such a facility. Yanco Agricultural High School subsequently opened in February 1922.
“One hundred years on at Yanco, we pride ourselves on still offering a unique educational experience for our students. The lectern that I am speaking from today was actually donated by the Hinton family who successfully tendered for the timber from McCaughey’s hayshed that was demolished in the 1930’s. When this shed blew down in the 1970’s at their property, Peter Hinton salvaged some of this timber and constructed a lectern that was presented to the school in 2010,” Mrs Milne said.
“Whilst our history and tradition will always be central to who we are at Yanco, it is important that we also prepare our students for their future. All students at Yanco have the option to participate in a wide variety of academic, vocational, sporting and wellbeing programs. Our speciality in developing students with a focus on agriculture, with students having the opportunity to work as an integral part of the school’s sheep, cattle and show stock teams, as well as our equine program, is what makes us most proud. It is our vision to ensure that all students at Yanco will achieve personal excellence in the premier Agricultural High School in NSW.
“One hundred years on lifelong friendships and memories are still made at this school. Every year a new group of Old Yanconians graduate but each and every one of them will always be part of the Yanco family,” she said.
Mrs Milne paid tribute to past and present staff who had worked tirelessly to provide the best education and boarding environment for the thousands of students who passed through the gates of Yanco Ag over the past 100 years.
“I would also like to thank the many families who have supported the school through its rich history and will continue to do so. I feel very privileged and honoured to be the Principal to lead Yanco into the next 100 years.”
This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 8 September 2022.
