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The First Established Catholic School
A lay couple named Mary and Michael Burke established the first catholic school funded intierly by money collected by local catholic settlers. The school was located not far from where St Stephens Cathedral stands today. At the time there were fewer than 1000 settlers and about a quater of these were Roman Catholic. -
First Catholic Church
The settlement had its first permanent church named St Stephens Cathedral. -
The Cathedral Of The Diocese
St Stephens was proclaimed the cathedral of the diocese after formally seperating from New South Wales to become known as the colony of Queensland. -
Bishop Quinn's Journey
Bishop James Quinn, five priests and six Irish sisters of mercy made their way to brisbane abroad the Yarra era. Bishop Quinn was suprised by the poverty of the largely Irish population and commited to raising the economic and social status of catholics through education. Also in 1961 mother Vincent Witty and the Sisters of Mercy established the very first catholic secondry school named All Hallows. -
James School For Boys
James school for boys was established and staffed entirely by lay teachers. It was a unique approach of both religious and lay student teachers reciving their training before and after school and working in class as an apprentice during the day. It would be almost 100 years until a dedicated teachers Training Colleague was established and named Macauley Colleague -
The Laws that passed
The 1870s was a time of growth on the back of the divide between the Irish Catholics and the English Protestants came a push to keep church and state seperate. Laws were passed to provide free compulsory and secular education to children and to remove state funding for all religious schools. Despite the political climate by the end of the decade there were 35 catholic schools established and fully funded by their communites. Catholic education not only survived but flourished. -
St Mary Of the Cross
It was around this time that Saint Mary of the Cross McKillop and the sisters of Saint Joseph arrived in Brisbane within months despite the harshness and challanges of early European settlemment they began teaching. The turn of the century saw much transformation such as the newly formed federation of the Australian states, The new Archdiocese of Brisbane, a new Archbishop Robert Done along with technological and social advancments, australian women now able to vote and upsets of World War one. -
Archbishop James Duhig
Following on from Archbishop Dunn's in 1919 Archbishop James Duhig was a visionary with an entrepreneunial spirit could see the growing need for catholic schooling, he invested in large tracts of land around brisbane but in 1930 he had established 28 new schools. -
Bernard O'Shea
Bernard O'Shea was appointed diocesan inspector. later on in 1948 the role renamed as diocesan director of catholic education. He would become instrumental in leading us through the transformation of catholic education in brisbane. 40 years later in 1988 father Bernard O'Shea was replaced by the first lay director Victor Or Orc. -
The Result Of Hard Challanges
The period from the great depression in 1929 to the end of the world war 2 saw australia suffer the challanges of a wide spread poverty and unemployment. Catholic education was affected by a lack of teachers, growing class sizes and economic challanges but Catholic education persevered through these hard times. Some schools waive thier fees to help struggling families and suprisingly no schools closed. Throughout this time catholic education struggled but ended up opening 19 new quality schools. -
More Struggle
Catholic education continued to struggle with the demands of its mission throught the post-war boom the numbers within religious orders began to decline and so an increase in the employment of lay staff began despite budget restrictions and continued funding by communites and parashies. -
A Decade Of Strain
Communites continued to meet the shortfalls of their funding. The 1960s was a decade of strain for catholic education. Lay teachers were battling with stifling conditions and only equipped with two years training before entering the classrooms. -
Our Lady Of Mercy
Major changes occured nation wide in school funding after the Goulburn school strike in 1962. Government health inspectors demanded 3 additional toilets be installed at Our Lady Of Mercy prep school. Goldmans Bishop John Cullinane said that there was no money.He called a meeting of catholic parents who voted to strike resulting in 1000 students descending on the local state school for enrollment. Politcal parties reconsidered state aid to non state schools. This was the first government funding. -
Whitlam government polices
The catholic tax payers association had lobied for state aid since the 1930s and with the formation of the queensland federation of parents and friends in 1962 a major shift of operations of schools and managment of funding would continue to face. Change over the next decade with the Whitlam goverrnment polices. This funding resulted in equal pay with the state school teachers and the appointment of Archbishop Patrick Mary O'Donnell. -
Macaulay
Macaulay colleague would open its doors in 1973 to include lay teachers as catholic schools have become more reliant on laid leadership and staff. Major social upheaval and the second vatican council saw new education approaches which would see this decade closed with 43 thousand students enrolled and 113 schools across the archdiocese. The first australian born Archbishop Francis Rush was appointed in 1973 and over the next 7 years 12 new quality schools emerged.
