Owing to delays in construction, the school was not finished until 1961 at a cost of £324,641, two years after Cahill's death in office in October 1959.

[3] In memory of Cahill's efforts to bring public education to the local area, the school decided that it was to be named in his honour.

[3][11] The official opening was also attended by the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Hugh Gough, the Mayor of Botany, John Samuel Elphick, the federal Member of Parliament for Kingsford Smith, Dan Curtin, the Director of Secondary Education, Albert William Stephens, the Chairman of the Public Service Board, John Goodsell, and the Commander of the 2nd Cadet Brigade, Lieutenant Colonel Ian Hutchison.

I walked around the back to the lunch area, a sheltered square in the centre of the main building—the tuckshop on one side, rows of bubblers and dustbins on the other, the concrete floor crowded with wooden benches and Globite cases.

A Pan American Boeing swept low across the sky, the sound of jets drowning for a moment the shrilling and yelping in the playground.