Cairns
HISTORY
Arrival in Cooktown in 1888
The Most Reverend John Hutchinson OSA, Vicar-Apostolic of Cooktown, saw an urgent need in the thriving gold-mining township to have religious women staffing the Catholic school. He invited the Sisters of Mercy in Dungarvan, Ireland, to fill that role. While the entire community of Sisters there volunteered, five Sisters were selected – Mother Mary de Sales Meagher, Sr Mary Evangelist Morrissey, Sr Mary Rodriguez Sheehy, Sr Mary Josephine Jones and Sr Mary Joseph McGrath. They sailed from London on the ‘SS Liguria’ and at Sydney boarded a small coastal steamer, the ‘Elamang’, which arrived in Cooktown on June 24th, 1888.
St Mary’s Convent and Boarding
School in Cooktown, around 1915
The building that was to become St Mary’s Convent of Mercy and Boarding School was still under construction when the Sisters arrived. The grandest building in Cooktown when it opened in May 1889, St Mary’s thrived under the care of the Sisters, taking both boarders and day scholars. It was described in advertisements as a “high-class boarding school” where young women were prepared to take their place in an isolated society lacking in many basic facilities. The Sisters regarded education as an important priority for young women, and set high goals for academic achievement. With an emphasis on holistic education, they ensured that their students became accomplished in music, painting and dance. Religious instruction and social skills such as manners and deportment were also priorities in the education of the girls.
Fully appreciating that these founding Sisters would be facing isolation in an independent foundation on the other side of the world, the Dungarvan community chose them with care, thus demonstrating the practicality for which Sisters of Mercy are well-known. Each of the five Sisters was skilled in a specific area – management (Sr M de Sales), financial administration (Sr M Josephine), music (Sr M Joseph) education (Sr M Evangelist) and domestic organisation (Sr M Rodriguez).
Expansion to other locations
In October 1892, just four years after the establishment of St Mary’s, four Sisters of Mercy from Cooktown were invited to take over a small Catholic school in Cairns run by Misses K. Bermingham and C. McMulkin. This was the beginning of the present-day St Monica’s College, which began to accept secondary students in 1933 and now operates as an all-girls secondary school. Mareeba was the next centre where the Sisters of Mercy established a school, St Thomas’s, in January 1909. Next came St Patrick’s at Herberton in June 1910 (since closed), which was followed in Herberton by the development of a large boarding school for girls, Mt St Bernard College. Mt St Bernard opened for students in 1921, and was the first secondary school to open on the Tablelands. Because of declining industry and population in Cooktown this order-owned school became the motherhouse of the Sisters. St Mary’s at Cooktown closed in 1941, following evacuation to Herberton during World War II. Mt St Bernard College became co-educational in the early 1990’s, although boarding remains available only to girls. In January 2006 the Sisters gifted Mt St Bernard to the Diocese of Cairns, who now own and operate the school. Our motherhouse remains at the convent within this site at Herberton.
The original building at Herberton was
the most imposing building in a busy
tin-mining town. This building remains
in use by the Sisters and school in 2008,
with many other buildings having been
added to this site over the decades since 1921.
In 1914 a convent school was opened in the western mining town of Chillagoe; however, the mining boom was short-lived and this school closed in 1928. St Joseph’s, Atherton and St Michael’s (originally St Alphonsus) at Gordonvale were opened in 1923; St Rita’s, Babinda in 1926; St Joseph’s, Parramatta (Cairns) in 1928; St Therese’s, Edmonton in 1929; St Augustine’s, Mossman in 1934; Good Counsel, North Cairns in 1936; St Teresa’s, Ravenshoe in 1950; and Our Lady Help of Christians, Earlville in 1964. When the diocese assumed responsibility for Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School on Thursday Island in 1968 the Sisters of Mercy took over the school from the Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Though the Sisters have withdrawn from most of these schools, some remain on staff at Mt St Bernard College, St Monica’s, Our Lady Help of Christians, and St Joseph’s, Parramatta. As well, many other Catholic schools receive pastoral support from Sisters who regularly visit to meet with students and staff.
Key ministries outside of education over the years include involvement in aged care, especially at Bethlehem Home in Cairns, which the Sisters managed for a number of years from 1967 to 1996. Throughout their time in the diocese the Sisters have also been involved in pastoral support services. At present, Sisters undertake this role in Cairns, Babinda, Earlville, North Cairns, Mossman, Atherton, Mareeba, Herberton, and Cooktown. The presence of Sisters in Cooktown followed a request from the Bishop for the Sisters to return to minister to the people after the last full-time Parish Priest left – two Sisters returned to Cooktown in 1985.
