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During this time Catholics had very little rights. They were not allowed to vote, attend mass or own their own land.
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During the early days of Australian settlement, all schools were made with the Church of England. Catholic schools were banned.
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When the First Fleet arrived in Australia it took with it 300 Catholics (compared to the 1050 non-Catholics.)
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The Irish rebellion increased tension between the English and the Irish. This played a big part in the development of Catholics in Australia.
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The first Catholic priests were brought to Australia as convicts. They were Fr James Dixon, Fr James Harold, and Fr Peter O'Neil. Fr John Therry and Fr Phillip Conolly later arrived in Australia, on May 3rd, 1802. (Fr Dixon moved back home to Ireland in 1808 and on the 3rd of August, 1839 Fr Connolly died)
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Both the first public mass and wedding were celebrated with the help of Fr James Dixon. Mass was celebrated again in Parramatta and Hawkesbury on the 29th of May 1803.
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Masses were banned after a convict led rebellion. This was due to fears that a group of Catholics gathering together could spark another rebellion against the conoly leaders.
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Fr Jeremiah O’Flynn came to Australia but was eventually asked to leave after he performed a mass without permission. He left on the 20th of May 1818.
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In 1820 the Catholic church was officially recognized in Australia. From this time to 1833, Fr John Therry led the Catholics in Australia and the amount of Catholics went from 6,000 to 16,088.
In 1829 Catholics were given more freedom and rights in both Britain in Australia.
Fr John Bede Polding became the first Catholic Bishop of Australia and traveled here on the 6th of August, 1835. -
During this time Victoria and South Australia were being settled. Convicts were not sent to either settlement, and South Australia was a non-Catholic community.
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(After new settlements in Tasmania) Fr Therry was made the Vicar-General of Tasmania. He tried to improve the hostility toward the Catholics, most of whom were convicts.
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Fr John Brady was sent to Perth so that he could work towards providing help to Catholics and Indigenous people. After a journey to Europe, he came back to Perth with up to 300 Catholic priests, nuns and students.
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Bishop Serra took control of the Catholic and Aboriginal mission in Perth after a struggle for power with Bishop Brady. The community was still split after the incident.
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Governor Denison wanted Britain to send as little Catholic convicts to Australia as possible. This was an attempt to stop a Catholic uprising and keep the social order.
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The amount of religious schools dropped and the number of Denominational schools began to rise. After much debate about which religion schools should follow an Education act was passed. This stated that schools should be free, compulsory and not tied to religion or beliefs.
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The government withdrew funding for Catholic schools, but despite this, the number of Catholic educator continued to grow. In 1880 there were around 815 teaching sisters in Australia. In 1910, there were over 5,000 Catholic educators Finally, in 1930, there were about 1,000 religious brothers and around 10,300 religious sisters
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In 1913, Archbishop Daniel Mannix came to Melbourne and worked hard to fight for Catholic rights. He fought for better education, political rights, and stood against conscription in World War 1.
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After World War II there were over 2 million immigrants who moved to Australia. Many of them were from Catholic backgrounds. They, instead of following the Irish Catholicism set in Australia, brought new traditions, cultures and diversity to Australian Catholicism.
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2006- 15% of Australian Catholics attend mass at least once a month and 13.8% attend on most Sundays 2001- 16% of Australian Catholics attend mass at least once a month and 15.3% attend on most Sundays
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There are around 3085 Catholics priests in Australia as of 2009 and around five million Catholics in Australia. This means that the number of Catholics in Australia went from 300 to 5,000,000.
