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In 1770 when Captain Cook arrived on the east coast of Australia, Indigenous people had been living on the land for over 40 000 years.
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Two schools were established in 1792 for the officers and children of convicts.
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In 1800 a Catholic priest named Father James Dixon arrived in the colony as a convict.
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In 1804, 300 convicts rebelled against the harsh conditions and treatments that they were receiving.
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The first Catholic school opened between 1803 and 1806.
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The first recorded Mass in Australia was celebrated on the 15th May 1803.
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As a result Catholic worship was banned. Father Dixon returned to Ireland in 1808.
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In 1817 another Catholic priest arrived named Jeremiah O’Flynn.
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He was not authorized to conduct services or operate as a chaplain and so in 1818 he was arrested and deported. He did, however, leave behind a Blessed Sacrament at a Sydney home that remained the center for Catholic devotion until the next priests arrived two years later.
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Later Father Therry opened a school in 1820 and by 1833 there were 10 Catholic schools in the colony catering for both Catholic and Protestant children.
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The Roman Catholic Relief Act of 1829 gave Catholics the same political rights as Protestants and the right to hold public office.