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Period: to
Early Settlement - 1788 - 1830
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Fr James Dixon
This is when Father Dixon came to Australia. Fr James Dixon was a prisoner priest in the early Colony of New South Wales and said the first Mass sanctioned by the government.
The proclamation was read at Government House, Parramatta, and the first Mass was celebrated in Sydney on 15 May 1803. -
Australia’s first Catholic Mass
Fr. Dixon presented the first public mass on Australian soil on May 15th 1803 at Port Jackson followed by Mass at Parramatta on May 22nd and at Hawkesbury on May 29th. This helped the Catholics that had newly arrived in Australia celebrate their religion and feel at peace. -
Castle Hill uprising
The Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804 was Australia’s first uprising. The rebellion was an attempt by a group of Irish convicts to overthrow British rule in New South Wales and return to Ireland where they could continue to fight for an Irish republic. Ending in disaster, the ill-fated rebellion resulted in the death of at least 39 convicts in both ‘Australia’s Battle of Vinegar Hill’ itself and ensuing martial law punishments. -
Rum Rebellion
The Rum Rebellion of 1808 was a coup d'état in the then-British penal colony of New South Wales, staged by the New South Wales Corps in order to depose Governor William Bligh. -
Jeremiah O’Flynn
The priest who helped to publicize the needs of Catholics in New South Wales and to influence the British government in 1820 to allow the first official Roman Catholic missionaries to be sent to Australia. Born. Kerry, Ireland. 25 Dec 1788. -
Church Acts
The Church Building Acts 1818 to 1884 is the collective title of the following Acts: The Church Building Act 1818 (58 Geo 3 c 45) The Church Building Act 1819 (59 Geo 3 c 134) The Church Building Act 1822 (3 Geo 4 c 72) -
Fr John Therry
John arrived in Sydney, authorized by both church and state, in May 1820. He was one of the first allowed to minister in the colony, he also influenced Catholic church-building, education and civil rights, as well as being a parish priest at Windsor and Balmain. -
Fr Philip Conolly
Philip Conolly (1786–1839), the pioneer Catholic priest in Van Diemen's Land, arrived in Hobart in 1821 (Sydney in 1820). He established Hobart's pioneer Catholic school in 1822, and opened the first Catholic church in Australia. -
The Catholic Church in Tasmania
The Catholic Church became established in Tasmania, then Van Diemen's Land, in 1821 with the arrival of Father Philip Connolly. At the time, about one-third of the population was Roman Catholic. Most of them were convicts, or former convicts, from Ireland. -
Catholic Education in Australia
The first Catholic schools, humble as they were, sprang up in the Sydney area in the 1830s. They were run mainly by laypeople. The first Catholic school in Victoria, established in Melbourne in 1840 by Father Patrick Geoghagan, was similarly run by laypeople. -
Period: to
Formative Years - 1830 - 1870 (approx)
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Sisters of Mercy
The story of the Sisters of Mercy in Australia and Papua New Guinea begins in Ireland on December 12, 1831, when Catherine McAuley, along with two companions, Anna Maria Doyle and Elizabeth Harley, professed their vows and became the first Sisters of Mercy. -
Society of St Vincent de Paul
the Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in 1833 to help impoverished people living in the slums of Paris, France. The primary figure behind the Society's founding was Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, a French lawyer, author, and professor in the Sorbonne -
John Bede Polding
John Bede Polding, OSB was the first Roman Catholic Bishop and then Archbishop of Sydney, Australia. -
William Davis
William Davis arrived in Sydney in the Alfred on 31 December 1837; his parents and other siblings migrated in 1842.
Employed as a clerk with the Commercial Banking Co. of Sydney, Davis later took charge of the Goulburn branch. He later donated land and money to help build Saint Patrick's Church in Sydney. -
Caroline Chisholm
Caroline Chisholm arrived in 1838 in the colony of New South Wales, where she was appalled at the conditions that greeted poor and vulnerable women migrants. Aged just 30, Caroline Chisholm commenced working on improving the women's lot, setting up job schemes and campaigning for better working conditions. -
Sisters of Charity
In 1838, five Sisters were selected to take part in the Australian mission. These five pioneers left Ireland in August 1838, arriving in Sydney on 31 December of that year. The Sisters of Charity were the first Religious Institute of women to arrive in Australia -
The Good Samaritan Sisters
When John Bede Polding arrived in Australia in 1834, he quickly set about assisting these women, and others on the margins of society – indigenous people, convicts and abandoned children. With his support, the Sisters of Charity began the House of the Good Shepherd under the leadership of Mother Scholastica Gibbons. When this group of women was no longer able to maintain the refuge, Polding gathered five women together and formed a new Australian religious congregation. -
Mary MacKillop
Of Scottish descent, she was born in Melbourne but is best known for her activities in South Australia. Together with Julian Tenison-Woods, she founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites), a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools and welfare institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand, with an emphasis on education for the rural poor. -
Christian Brothers
At Polding's request, the Christian Brothers arrived in Sydney in 1843 to assist in schools. In 1857, Polding founded an Australian order of nuns in the Benedictine tradition – the Sisters of the Good Samaritan – to work in education and social work. -
Sectarian violence at Duke of Edinburgh
Duke of Edinburgh (1844-1900), was born on 6 August 1844 at Windsor, England, the second son of Queen Victoria. He entered the navy in August 1858 and travelled widely as a midshipman in the frigate Euryalus. In the winter of 1862-63, he was elected King of Greece but politics dictated his withdrawal and he was given instead right of succession to the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha -
St John’s Pro Cathedral (West Aust)
St. John's Pro-Cathedral was the principal place of worship for the Roman Catholic Community in Perth from 1844 until 1865. Upon its completion in 1865 the Gothic-style St Mary's Cathedral replaced St John's as Perth's Catholic Cathedral. The church then became known as St. John's Pro-Cathedral and was used by the Christian Brothers as a school. -
St Patrick’s (South Aust)
The foundation stone for Adelaide’s first Catholic church, St Patrick’s, was laid in December 1845. It was the principal place of Catholic worship in Adelaide until St Francis Xavier Cathedral opened on Wakefield Street in 1858. A tower designed by architects -
Establishment of the Sisters of St Joseph
In 1846, a group of Sisters of Mercy from Ireland arrived in the Swan River Colony (now Western Australia) and established the first secondary school for girls in the whole of Australia. In 1855, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition arrived in Fremantle in Western Australia -
Sisters of Mercy
The sisters arrived in Perth, Australia in 1846, and in 1850, a band from Carlow arrived in New Zealand. Sisters from Limerick opened a house in Glasgow in 1849, and in 1868 the English community established a house in Guernsey -
St Francis’ Church (Victoria)
In 1848, St Francis' became the cathedral church of the first Catholic Bishop of Melbourne, James Goold, and continued as a cathedral until 1868, when the diocesan seat was moved to the still unfinished St Patrick's Cathedral. The elegant cedar ceiling was installed in 1850 -
George Morley
George Morley, one of 300 convicts transported on the Randolph, 24 April 1849 -
Old St Stephen’s Church (Queensland)
In 1849 and 1850 the New South Wales Government, under provisions of Governor Richard Bourke's 1836 Church Act, subsidised the building of Old St Stephens Church which was opened on 12 May 1850 -
The Construction of St. Mary's Cathedral
St. Mary's Cathedral is the longest standing church in Australia. It is also the widest church in Australia. -
the second Gold Rush
The next large gold rush began in Australia in 1851 when rich deposits were found in the Ballarat and Bendigo regions of Victoria. These strikes drew diggers to Victoria’s chief town, Melbourne, from all over Australia and England until the early 1860s -
Eureka Stockade
The Eureka Rebellion occurred in 1854, involving gold miners in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia, who revolted against the colonial authority of the United Kingdom. -
Fr Julian Tenison Woods
In 1855 at the age of 23, Julian arrived in Tasmania where he worked as a chaplain to the convicts and also as a teacher. After three months, he left Hobart, travelled to Adelaide and there resumed his studies for the priesthood. He was ordained by Bishop Francis Murphy on 04 January 1857. -
Good Samaritan Sisters
The Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, colloquially known as the "Good Sams", is a Roman Catholic congregation of religious women commenced by Bede Polding, OSB, Australia’s first Catholic bishop, in Sydney in 1857. The congregation was the first religious congregation to be founded in Australia. -
Presentation Sisters
The sisters arrived in Australia in 1866 in response to an urgent need to educate the children of poor Irish settlers. The first Presentation school was opened in Richmond, Tasmania, followed in 1873 by the first mainland school, which opened in St Kilda, Melbourne, and the first New South Wales school -
St Mary’s Cathedral
The cathedral was designed by William Wardell and built from 1866 to 1928. It is also known as St Mary's Catholic Cathedral and Chapter House, Saint Mary's Cathedral and St Mary's Cathedral. The property was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004. -
Period: to
Growth Years - 1870 - 1960’s
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Arrival of the Marist Brothers
The Marist Brothers arrived in Australia in 1872 at the invitation of the Archbishop of Sydney. The Brothers in Australia currently operate as two Provinces (administrative units) with centres in Sydney and Melbourne. -
Cardinal Moran
Moran was appointed to Australia on 25 January 1884 and arrived on 8 September 1884. He was created Cardinal-Priest on 27 July 1885 with the title of St Susanna. The new Irish-Australian cardinal made it his business to make his presence and leadership felt. -
Kathleen Mary Egan
Kathleen Mary Egan (1890-1977), Dominican Sister and educationist were born on 16 December 1890 at The Rock, near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, the third child of Richard Egan, a railway stationmaster from Ireland, and his native-born wife Catherine, née Connors. Educated from the age of 15 by the Dominican nuns at Maitland, Kathleen entered the order's novitiate in 1910 and was professed on 14 November 1912, taking the religious name Mary Madeleine Thérèse. -
Federation
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia agreed to unite and form the Commonwealth of Australia, establishing a system of federalism in Australia. -
White australia policy
The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical racial policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting in 1901. -
De La Salle brothers
The De La Salle Brothers arrived in Australia in 1906 to establish Catholic schools. By 1932 a De La Salle school was established in Roma, Queensland, and in 1955 they set up a school and community in Scarborough. In 1961 the Brothers established BoysTown in Beaudesert. -
Archbishop Mannix
Archbishop Daniel Mannix, who died fifty years ago this year at the age of 99, was Australia's most influential and controversial churchman. He did not arrive in Australia until he was in his forties, landing here in March 1913, yet he accomplished enough to fill more than one lifetime -
Period: to
World War I
World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. -
Bob Santamaria
B. A. (Bob) Santamaria. 1915 - 1998 | VIC | Journalist & Broadcaster. Santamaria was Australia’s most effective and influential conservative commentator for more than two decades. -
Fr Frank Fletcher
One day, as young Frank Fletcher was walking home from school, a strong force knocked him off his feet. He later recognised this as a religious experience, one that eventually set him on the path to the priesthood and to a commitment to what he called a ''spirituality of the heart''. He has worked closely with the catholic aboriginal community. -
Fr John Brosnan
Ordained a priest by his greatest hero, Archbishop Daniel Mannix, in 1945, Father Brosnan spent eight years beside Mannix at St Patrick's, before working 30 years as Catholic chaplain at Pentridge. He retired from parish ministry in 1998. A passionate Geelong football supporter, he was also a familiar figure at the races and the dogs. -
The labour party split
The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 was a split within the Australian Labor Party along ethnocultural lines and about the position towards communism. Key players in the split were the federal opposition leader H. V. "Doc" Evatt and B. A. Santamaria, the dominant force behind the "Catholic Social Studies Movement" or "the Movement". -
Period: to
Contemporary Society - 1960’s - Present Day
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Vatican II
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, addressed relations between the Catholic Church and the modern world. -
Caritas Australia
Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 165 Catholic relief, development and social service organizations operating in over 200 countries and territories worldwide. Collectively and individually, their missions are to work to build a better world, especially for the poor and oppressed. -
Cardinal Gilroy
Cardinal Gilroy was appointed K.B.E. in 1969. In December 1970 he welcomed his friend Pope Paul VI on the first papal visit to Australia. It cast a glow of an older splendour over the last months of his episcopate. With relief, he tendered his resignation on his 75th birthday, 22 January 1971. -
Edward Bede Clancy
Edward Bede Clancy AC was an Australian Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal. He was the seventh Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney from 1983 to 2001. He was made Cardinal-Priest of Santa Maria in Vallicella in 1988.
