News
21 June, 2026
Historic Moss Vale school site demolished
Demolition is underway at the former Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar School (SCEGGS) at Suttor Road Moss Vale.
Demolition is underway at the former Sydney Church of England Girls’ Grammar School (SCEGGS) at Suttor Road Moss Vale.
The demolition of six former school buildings was approved by the Wingecarribee Local Planning Panel in July 2025.
Before becoming a school, the property known as Austermere was a large estate and later served as an orphanage before being purchased by SCEGGS in 1930.
The school is best known beyond the Southern Highlands due to a tragic siege.
On November 7, 1961, Leonard Lawson a convicted rapist and killer burst into the school's chapel with a rifle and took 150 students and staff hostage.
The siege came just one day after Lawson had murdered 16-year-old Sydney schoolgirl Jane Bower.
Despite the attempts of staff to overpower Lawson inside the chapel, 15-year-old student Wendy Sue Luscombe was shot and killed. Moss Vale Police arrested Lawson.
The Canberra Times reported on 15 December 1961 that Wendy Luscombe had pushed a school friend under a “seat for safety before she was shot”.
Lawson was sentenced to life in prison and died there in 2003.
The reports submitted to the Planning Panel documented the poor condition of the buildings. Demolition was balanced against the heritage significance of the site before the approval was issued.
Austermere’s remnant gardens, trees and shrubs are listed on the NSW State Heritage Inventory. The listing notes that ‘Remnant Victorian gardens overlaid with interwar plantings, an area of 40 acres is in immaculate condition’. The buildings were not heritage listed.
The owners were directed by the planning panel to adhere to several conditions including heritage management requirements, photographic recording and documentation of the site's history before demolition works commenced.
There are no published plans for what is next for the site.
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