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Mary Reiby
Mary Reibey is one of the most famous early convict women in the colony of New South Wales. A convicted horsethief, Mary went on to run an extensive importing and mercantile business and there are numerous references to her business dealings, liquor licences, land grants and purchases throughout the State archives. Mary Reibey’s face is also on the $20 note. -
St John’s Church (Tasmania)
The church was made possible by Australia’s first catholic archbishop, John Bede Polding, who visited Tasmania on his way to a position in Sydney. Polding visited the Richmond catholics who used to gather at the home of John Cassidy, who owned land slightly north-east of the village centre called Woodburn. -
Period: to
Formative Years
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Church Acts
Acts agrees with Paul's letters on the major outline of Paul's career: he is converted and becomes a Christian missionary and apostle, establishing new churches in Asia Minor and the Aegean and struggling to free Gentile Christians from the Jewish Law. -
Caroline Chisholm
Caroline Chisholm was a 19th-century English humanitarian known mostly for her support of immigrant female and family welfare in Australia. She is commemorated on 16 May in the calendar of saints of the Church of England. -
Sisters of Charity
Mary Aikenhead founded the Sisters of Charity in 1815 as the first unenclosed religious women in Ireland. Their institutions cared for the sick and poor and welcomed all creeds. Many of the subsequent hospitals opened by the Sisters were named in honour of this saint who dedicated himself to serving the poor. -
St Francis’ Church (Victoria)
St Francis' Church on the corner of Lonsdale Street and Elizabeth Street, is the oldest Catholic church in Victoria, Australia. The main body of the church is one of very few buildings in central Melbourne which was built before the Victorian gold rush of 1851. -
Christian Brothers
The Brothers also conduct orphanages and schools for the poor, primary and secondary level schools, university colleges and colleges of education, schools for the deaf and for the blind, technical schools and agricultural colleges. -
St John’s Pro Cathedral (West Aust)
St John's Pro-Cathedral is located at 18 Victoria Avenue in Perth, Western Australia. It is the earliest Roman Catholic church building in Western Australia. -
Sisters of Mercy
The Sisters of Mercy went on to found convents, schools and hospitals across the globe. They arrived in Australia in 1846, led by Mother Ursula Frayne. The Australian congregation established schools and convents around the country and opened their first hospitals in Brisbane and Sydney. -
Old St Stephen’s Church (Queensland)
Old St Stephens Church is significant as the oldest surviving church building in Brisbane and provides evidence of construction techniques used in Brisbane in the 1840s. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. -
Gold Rushes
In 1851 gold-seekers from around the world began pouring into the colonies, changing the course of Australian history. The gold rushes greatly expanded Australia's population, boosted its economy, and led to the emergence of a new national identity. -
Society of St Vincent de Paul
The St Vincent de Paul Society is a lay Catholic organisation that aspires to live the gospel message by serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice, hope and joy, and by working to shape a more just and safe world. -
Fr Julian Tenison Woods
Julian was a gifted missionary priest, scientist, writer, musician and popular lecturer. As a lifelong student of geology, palaeontology and zoology, Julian shared Mary's commitment to education for the poor. London-born Julian arrived in Tasmania in 1855, aged 23. -
Good Samaritan Sisters
They are involved in social work, nursing, respite and residential care, education, parish work, centres of spirituality and administration. Good Samaritan Sisters are women who have committed themselves to work for justice in the world. -
Presentation Sisters
The Presentation Sisters' mission is to help the poor and needy around the world. Historically, the Sisters focused their energies on creating and staffing schools that would educate young people, especially young ladies. Most of these schools are still in operation and can be found across the globe. -
Establishment of the Sisters of St Joseph
It was a shelter for neglected and destitute children, old women and vulnerable young girls and also was a Novitiate, for training nuns and the Provincialate office. When Sister Mary MacKillop was expelled from the Adelaide Diocese in 1883 she went to Sydney. -
Sectarian violence at Duke of Edinburgh visit
There was an assassination attempt on Prince Alfred, and, apparently, the cause of the attempt was underlying sectarian violence. Irishman William James O'Farrell tried to shoot and kill the Prince, but he missed and was shortly arrested afterwards. -
Mary Mackillop
Mary and the Josephite nuns set up schools in Australia and New Zealand. They also set up houses for elderly women, young girls and women without jobs. They gave their life to people in need often giving comfort to the sick and dying and even visiting people in jail to give them whatever help they could. -
St Patrick’s Church (South Aust)
St Patrick's Church is a heritage-listed Roman Catholic church on Grote Street, Adelaide, South Australia. Opened in 1914, St Patrick's was built as a replacement for the original Saint.
