February 18, 2014
St Mary’s Catholic College in Kingaroy is celebrating 85 years of Catholic education in the South Burnett this year and also has a number of other important milestones coming up over the next two years.
In January 1929, four newly arrived Sisters of Charity turned a room in their convent into a primary school for their first 30 students.
Classes continued in the St Mary’s Catholic Church until the Convent school was built and officially opened by Archbishop Duhig in August 1929.
The following year, 1930, 70 students were enrolled at the Convent School.
The three acres of land for the original school and convent had been a gift from locals Daniel and Bridget Carroll.
Last year, St Mary’s Catholic College recognised the Carroll’s generosity by naming their main oval the Daniel and Bridget Carroll Oval.
Eighty years ago, in June 1934, the Sisters of Charity were replaced by four Good Samaritan Sisters whose order were already running 17 other primary and four other secondary schools around Queensland.
The Good Samaritan sisters are a Benedictine order and live by the Rule of St Benedict. It is these Benedictine values which are still at the heart of St Mary’s Catholic College today and have been reinterpreted into the College’s modern Benedictine values of: Be Respectful; Be Responsible; Be Safe; Be Just and Be Your Best.
The Convent School remained as a primary only school until 1946 when Sr Mary Winefride briefly opened a secondary school to “an average of 12 boys and girls”.
This only operated for four years before the secondary section closed and would remain closed until 50 years ago.
In 1964, Mother Mary Lucian, then Principal of St Mary’s primary school, and Sr Mary Marius began a “high top” primary with the first cohort of twelve Year 8 students.
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Over the next two years, St Mary’s Catholic College, Kingaroy will celebrate a number of important milestones.
These celebrations will culminate with a gathering of past staff, students and families in 2015.
This year, it will celebrate the 85th anniversary of primary education, the 80th anniversary of the arrival of the Good Samaritan Sisters, and the 50th anniversary of continuous secondary education.
The major celebrations will be held in 2015 to mark the 50th anniversary of the secondary school opening in 1965 on the current Kent Street site with Sr Dolores Carroll as its Principal.
Last year, to celebrate Sr Dolores’ 100th birthday and her dream of St Mary’s having a Manual Arts building, the school named the Trade Training Centre after Sr Dolores.
2015 is also the 25th anniversary of the opening of the combined P-12 College which opened as South Burnett Catholic College back in 1990.
Tom Lambert, the first Principal of the combined P-12 school, has the College’s Performing Arts award named in his honour in recognition of his passion for performing arts.
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The St Mary’s Catholic College community encourages all who have been part of the College’s last 85 years to register in preparation for next year’s celebrations.
Past students and staff can register online or by ringing the College on (07) 4162-2011.
- More historic photos can be seen on St Mary’s Catholic College’s Facebook page
