-
Period: to
1788
La Perouse enters Botany Bay and his chaplain, Abbe Mones, celebrates the first
Mass within Australian territory -
Period: to
1791
First Irish convicts transported to Botany Bay -
Period: to
1792
Catholic settlers in Parramatta petition Governor Phillip for a chaplin -
Period: to
1800
Fr James Dixon and two other priests arrested as part of the 1798 Irish Rebellion are transported to New South Wales as convicts -
Period: to
1803
First official public Mass is held under strict Government supervision and is celebrated by prisoner priest, Fr Dixon -
Period: to
1804
Castle Hill Rebellion results in Fr Dixon’s permit to conduct Mass being withdrawn -
Period: to
1817
Fr Jeremiah Flynn arrives to minister to convict Catholics but he does not have the official sanction of the church or state. The following year after ignoring Governor Macquarie’s instructions not to carry out any of the functions of a priest, he is arrested and deported despite protests from the colony’s Catholics and several Protestant leaders -
Period: to
1820
Fr John Therry and Fr Philip Conolly, Australia’s first official priests, arrive in Sydney. Fr Therry opens the first Catholic school in Parramatta and lobbies Governor Macquarie for land on which to build the settlement’s first Catholic church. Father Conolly leaves for Hobart leaving Fr John Therry the only priest on mainland Australia -
Period: to
1821
The foundation stone of St Mary’s Chapel is laid by Governor Macquarie and blessed by Fr Therry. The site is near a barren brickfield and Sydney’s convict barracks on land considered undesirable and without value. Father Connolly builds the first Catholic church in Tasmania -
Period: to
1822
Fr Therry founds the first Catholic school on Hunter Street, Parramatta