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Lay couple Mary and Michal Berk esablished the first catholic school funded by money collected from local catholic settlers
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The settlement had its first permanent catholic church called St Stephans.
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In The 1870's there was a push to keep church and state seperate. Laws were passed to provide free compulsory education to children and to remove state funding to all religious schools.
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By this time there were 35 catholic schools esablished and fully funded by their communities. Around this time St Mary of the Cross Mackillop and other sisters arrived in Brisbane and started teaching.
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Archbishop James Duhig invested in large areas of land for catholic schools , therefore 28 new catholic schools established on his land.
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During this time Australia suffered challenges of wide spread poverty and unemployment. Catholic education was effected by lack of teachers and growing class sizes. During this period no schools were closed but 19 new schools were opened.
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Religious orders started to decline so an increase in the employment of lay staff began. 26 new schools were opened.
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After the Goulburn school strike major changes occurred nation wide in school funding.
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After 40 years as director of catholic education father Bernard O'shea was replaced by the first lay director Vince Orourke.
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There was significant growth from the Rudd governments 2007 promise of one-two-one technology.
