The Holy See in 1883 asked the Irish Augustinian priests to serve this area of Queensland. They were led by Bishop John Hutchinson OSA who visited the Sisters of Mercy, Dungarvan in 1887 with his request. Many Sisters volunteered and five were chosen. They were Mother deSales Meagher, who resigned her office as Superior of Dungarvan only to take up the same office at Cooktown! Mother Josephine Jones, Srs. Joseph McGrath, Evangelist Morrrissey, Rodriguez Sheehy.
The Sisters set sail for Australia on the 21st April 1888. When they arrived in Cooktown they found a large brick convent ready for them-built in part by the generous people of North Queensland and in part by the pennies of the poor in Hoxton, London, where the Augustinian Fathers had appealed for help to build the convent in Cooktown. The Sisters of Mercy in Dungarvan continued to send out professed Sisters, novices and postulants until the Cooktown mission could function on its own. Soon it became a flourishing mother house sending out branches throughout Northern Queensland. Of the five pioneers three Sisters died while still young. Sr.de Sales died aged 47 in March 1897, Sr. Josephine in 1906 aged 50 and Sr Joseph also in 1906 aged 55. Sr. Rodriguez lived to be 87 and died in Cooktown on the 3rd October 1939. Sr. Evangelist Morrissey lived until April 4th 1950.
The first school was in St. Mary’s Cooktown. Within a year a boarding school was ready for occupation with accommodation for up to 80 boarders. In 1912 secondary classes were added and the school became widely known for its high standard of education. However, war time conditions and declining population in the Cooktown region forced the closure of St. Mary’s in 1941.
Cairns 1892
In October 1892 four Sisters from Cooktown were invited to take over a small Catholic school in Cairns run by Misses K. Birmingham and C.McMulkin. This was the start of St. Monica’s College which began to accept students in 1933 and operates as an all girls school.
A school was established in Mareeba in January 1909 called St. Thomas’s. Next came St. Patrick’s at Herberton in June 1910 where a large boarding school for girls opened called Mt. St. Bernard College.
In 1914 a convent school was opened in the western mining town of Chillagoe. However it closed in 1920s because of the collapse of mining operations.
Several other convents and schools were opened over the years in different places throughout the diocese. They also administered Bethlehem Home for the aged for the Diocese of Cairn for many years and in 1985 the people of Cooktown welcomed back the Sisters of Mercy.
The Sisters of Mercy are responsible for the beginnings of the first officially recognized Catholic education in the diocese of Cairns.
(Information from The Archivist, Sisters of Mercy. Cairns Congregation)
Southern Province 