when did the presentation sisters arrived in australia

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Presentation Sisters, Society of Australian Congregations of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary ( - )

Presentation Sisters at Tardun, courtesy of Christian Brothers Institution Albums 1 & 2 (Holy Spirit Collection). DETAILS

The Presentation Sisters were founded in 1775 in Ireland by Nano Nagle. Their website gives some history of the Presentation Sisters' work in Australia. They came first to Richmond in Tasmania in October 1866, to Victoria in 1873 and to New South Wales in 1874. In 1900, the Presentation Sisters went from NSW to the Western Australian goldfields and July 1891, another group came directly from Ireland to Geraldton. The Presentation Sisters and Christian Brothers have had some historical links because of the inspiration drawn by the founder of the Christian Brothers, Edmund Rice, from Nano Nagle's approach to religious life and work, and the practical support he gave to the establishment of their convent in Waterford, Ireland. In July 1941, four Presentation Sisters formed a community at St Mary's Christian Brothers' Farm School Tardun. The Presentation Sisters kept a Community at Tardun until 1966.

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In his book, Enduring Struggle , Tardun ex-student David Plowman writes (p.255) that the Sisters of Nazareth were the first females at Tardun and after them came the Presentation Sisters. These were Mother Laurence (Ryan) and Sisters Aidan Coady, Philomena Ryan and Patricia White. They were followed in 1942 by Sister Peter, Sister Benedict, Sister Evangelist, Sister Paschal, Sister Bridget and Sister Margaret Mary to help with the boys from Clontarf who were evacuated to Tardun. The Presentation Sisters were asked to take charge of 'the domestic arrangements in connection with the school, such as cooking, taking care of the sick, superintending laundry, clothes mending and the Chapel.' Professor Plowman also records (p.259) that the Sisters at Tardun led an 'uncomplicated life' enjoying simple recreations such as Sunday films, walks and concerts put on by the Tardun students. They had an annual holiday in December at Geraldton with other Presentation Sisters. Apparently, it was their habit to have a 'Sunday drive around the property and to neighbouring farms.'

In 1948, the Presentation Sisters also established a primary school at the Pallottine Mission at Tardun, a few kilometers from St Mary's Farm School.

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Last updated: 21 January 2019 Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/wa/WE00601 First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011

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Presentation Sisters, 150 Years of Service

Rear from left, Sisters Margaret Mary Crowley, Loyola Moloney, Lawrence Teahy, Aloysius Evans, Columba Bailie, Fabian O’Keefe and Di Pazzi Hensker. Front from left, Joan Gallagher, Teresa McMahon and Gerard Walter

Many of us who grew up in the Latrobe Valley and East Gippsland would have fond memories of the Presentation Sisters for their work in the parish and at Nagle College in both Bairnsdale and Moe/Newborough.  

My early years were spent in Bairnsdale and I remember the day that Mother Catherine PBVM came to St Mary’s Primary School and was introduced to the various classes. The Presentation Sisters were taking over the administration and staffing of the school from the Josephites.  I reckon I must have been in grade 4… and I was mildly alarmed by the ‘horns’ of her starched wimple.

It is almost precisely 150 years since the Presentation Nuns arrived in Australia. On December 21st 1873 the first small group of Sisters from their Limerick convent disembarked at Port Melbourne to staff the little Catholic school in East Saint Kilda… what was to become Presentation College, Winsor.

They were intrepid women. There were six professed nuns and two young postulants, one of whom was only 19 years old. The superior of the little group turned 31 on the voyage to Melbourne.

The tearful relatives who clustered around the 11 o’clock train to Dublin never expected to ever see them again and they, the nuns, like all other Irish migrants of the time, both religious and lay, never expected to return to see their relatives or their homeland. Most of them never did.

On this day in 1873, so protracted was their parting that the train was half an hour late leaving Limerick.

I have included a poem written to mark the first 100 years of the Presentation nuns on the mainland  (there was an earlier foundation in Tasmania). It perfectly captures the ‘shock of the new’ and the audacity of these women as they ‘rose up’ to follow their vision of the possible.

We too stand on the threshold, listening to hear ‘Life’s insistent cry’ every day we embrace the dawn.

Article by: Mike Hansen, Traralgon

Century  1873-1973

They were women of listening hearts To them the Spirit spoke; ‘Come’. So they rose up to follow. He led them out of their quiet valley, Over the rim of the world, Where summer came in winter-time And the very stars hung strange.

Listening, they could not rest from journeying… Always a little further… always one pace beyond. They set their course with life for their lode-star, Faith and love and laughter brimming over, And hope in their firm hands like seed. Till the seed they planted became a great tree, and many there were grew strong in its shade.

We stand where they once stood. Listening… hearing our own world, new-born this day, Life’s insistent cry – the Spirit’s voice. Let us rise up and follow, For though the Cross hang in our stars Resurrection shouts in the sunrise, And the tree of a hundred rings, deep-thrusting Out of firm darkness lifts to the light Branches vibrant with song.

Presentation Sister Raphael Consedine 

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View the clip here that traces the journey of the   Presentation Sisters Ireland to Australia   as they established convents and schools in various locations throughout Australia. 

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The Presentation Sisters

The society of australian congregations of the presentation of the blessed virgin mary (pbvm).

The Presentation Sisters were founded in 1775 by Nano Nagle to meet the needs of the poor in penal Ireland. Founded from Ireland, Presentation Sisters came to ‘the ends of the earth’ in Australia in 1866. Traditionally, Presentation Sisters in Australia have reached out to families in need through education in Primary Schools, Secondary Colleges and Tertiary Institutions.

Today Presentation Sisters and Associates are in every continent across our globe and work to address the ‘cry of the poor and the cry of the earth’ through a variety of social justice initiatives.

The Society of Australian Congregations of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (PBVM) is a federation of six autonomous Presentation Congregations in Australia and a group of Australian and Melanesian Presentation Sisters in Papua New Guinea.

Presentation Sisters are called to encounter God in the heart of the world and to continue the mission of Jesus in the spirit of our founder Nano Nagle. Like Nano we are called to keep our hearts open to the voices of those who are poor and oppressed, voices which challenge us to conversion and action both personally and communally.

For more information on the Presentation Sisters visit their website.

St Mary's College is located on the traditional lands of the muwinina people of the South East Nation. We acknowledge and deeply respect the palawa people, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Community, and all Elders past and present. We are committed to learning alongside our students and community in this place, nipaluna, and support the continued sharing of knowledge and culture.

150 years of Mount Erin: Sisters know they're nearing their end

At the ripe age of 16, Barbara Webber made the decision to devote her life to God and become a sister.

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Six decades later, and the faithful Catholic still spends every day helping those in need.

But for the past few months, she's been preparing Mount Erin Heritage Centre for the 150 th anniversary of the Presentation Sisters in Wagga, NSW.

Sister Barbara said the sesquicentenary is particularly special because the sisters know their time is coming to an end.

"We didn't want that story to die with us, so we decided to set up this heritage centre," she said.

"The story is such a wonderful story, we want it to continue on."

A lasting legacy

That story is a story of the five Catholic sisters who arrived in Wagga from Kildare, Ireland, to set up a convent and school in 1874.

The convent was Mount Erin which is now part of Kildare Catholic College, and is known among the Presentation Sisters as "the motherhouse".

Over the years the sisters also founded Mater Dei Catholic College, Kildare Catholic College, Mount Erin Boarding School, Henschke Primary School, Sacred Heart Primary School, Kooringal Public School, St Joseph's Primary School, and Wagga Wagga Public School.

• READ MORE: Regional school embroiled in 'vile' Snapchat scandal

The sisters grew in number and eventually established school throughout the Riverina - including Hay, Tarcutta, Berrigan, Ganmain, Urana and Young - and around Australia.

"In celebrating 150 years, we are really celebrating the lives of all those women who had the courage to come and establish Mount Erin," Sister Barbara said.

"But each one of those women have given of their best and their talents to spread the word of God."

Sisterhood coming to an end

Since 1874, there have been approximately 250 Presentation Sisters in Australia. Yet only 33 remain today - the oldest being 100, and the youngest 64.

"I just feel very honoured and proud to be a Presentation Sister and to be here able to celebrate 150 years," Sister Barbara said.

Although she says there's a natural sadness to the Presentation Sisters coming to an end, the sisters are still active members in their community and continue to care for others.

"There is a certain amount of sadness, but we really haven't got time to feel sad, we're too busy living today, and who knows what tomorrow brings," Sister Barbara said.

"We are facing the ending very courageously and with a lot of enthusiasm and gratitude of what has been and what is still to come."

Celebrating caring for the needy

Sister Susan Miller lives in Sydney but has travelled to Wagga to join the sisters in celebrations.

Like Sister Barbara, she has recognised that the Presentation Sisters won't be around in another 150 years.

She said they want to continue to do whatever they can do, for as long as they can.

For many of the sisters, this means working with women and children who experience gender-based violence.

"Ministry is different in the sense that it's what the individual sister believes she should be involved in," she said.

"Caring for the and working with those who are marginalised ... that kind of beckoned to me."

• READ MORE: Father's murder leaves daughters desperate for answers half a century on

Centre archivist Patrick Donohue said this devotion to helping the vulnerable is derived from the sisters' founder Nano Nagle in Ireland.

The sisterhood focused on giving education to young girls because until then, girls education was not valued in society.

"They've always had a very strong focus on defending and sticking up for the rights of minorities," he said.

"They've always self identified in being defenders for people who can't defend themselves."

A weekend to remember

On Thursday May 30, Wagga Mayor Dallas Tout invited the sisters to a mayoral reception to celebrate their 150 years.

The following day, schools affiliated with the Presentation Sisters are sending representatives to Mount Erin grounds to have a tree planting ceremony.

A public ceremony will be held in Kildare Hall for before an afternoon tea at Mount Erin on Saturday, June 1.

The public festivities take place from 1 to 5pm.

Emily Anderson

Emily is a reporter for The Daily Advertiser, based in Wagga. She loves keeping people in the loop about what's going on around them, and getting to the bottom of a good story. Got a lead - big or small? Flick an email to [email protected] Follow on insta @emilywyanderson

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Iona Presentation College

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History and The Presentation Sisters

Founded on 11 September 1907, the College is named after the Scottish Isle of Iona. Five Presentation Sisters from Kildare, Ireland, followed a call in the 1900s that brought them to Western Australia.

Perth's first Bishop, Bishop Gibney, felt the Mosman Park site reminded him of the Isle of Iona in Scotland, where Irish Saint Columba (or Columcille) founded a community in 563AD. The Scottish Isle of Iona became a centre of learning from which Saint Columba set forth to spread the Gospel. Bishop Gibney hoped that the site in Perth would fulfill the same purpose.

The Presentation Sisters have continued to work throughout Western Australia, providing assistance, advice and other services to the needy, in the true spirit of Nano Nagle.

Founder of the Presentation Sisters, Nano devoted her life to the education of the poor girls in her hometown of Cork, Ireland. Carrying a lantern through the dark streets, she would visit the sick and needy within the community, offering hope and compassion. The lantern has become a symbol for the Presentation Sisters, representing her kindness and God's love for the poor.

Nano Nagle brought love, care and hope to the poor, neglected, old, sick and frail. She felt compelled to help those deprived of hope and meaning. She is remembered for her life of faith in the Gospel of Jesus and her commitment to children and to all who struggled for justice and love.

In 2017, the Presentation Sisters transferred the governance of Iona Presentation College to the Archbishop of Perth. It remains a priority for the Archdiocese and the College to preserve the tradition, charism and story of the Presentation Sisters that has transformed Iona from its humble beginnings to the highly sought-after Pre-Kindergarten to Year 12 educational facility that it is today.

• A Catholic School. Pre K-12. Boys and Girls Pre K-6 | All Girls 7-12. Established in 1907 by the Congregation of Presentation Sisters (W.A.) Inc. As a Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) school, Iona Presentation College collects, stores, uses, and discloses your personal information in accordance with the CEWA Privacy Policy and Privacy Collection Notices you may find below.
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RELIGIOUS ORDERS SERVED HUGE SOCIAL NEEDS IN COLONIAL AUSTRALIA

Catherine Kovesi

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This flourishing was partly a consequence of changing attitudes to the capacity of women religious to participate in the community. It was also partly due to the extraordinary societal needs posed by this great century of industrialisation.

Until the nineteenth century, women religious had been subjected to the restricting confines of the cloister. This restriction of enclosure had a long history in the Catholic Church, dating back to the 1298 constitution Periculoso of Pope Boniface VIII. This was reinforced by the papal bull Circa pastoralis of 1566, which forbade women from leaving the convent walls except in cases of leprosy, epidemic or fire.

Despite numerous attempts by women across the centuries to circumvent these regulations, including by St Clare of Assisi, Mary Ward and Nano Nagle, it was not until 1831, in Ireland, that any woman was successful in doing so.

In 1831 in Dublin, Catherine McAuley founded an Order in which religious sisters could tend to the needs of the wider community outside the convent walls. Her Sisters of Mercy were, for this reason, nicknamed The Walking Nuns.

In France, Napoleon, who at first had declared that religious orders "serve no useful purpose," soon came to see their benefit to French society, and by 1808 he was actively promoting their recruitment.

Over the next eighty years almost 400 new Orders for religious women were established in France. The Sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart (founded in 1800), the Faithful Companions of Jesus, or FCJs (1820), the Sisters of the Good Shepherd (1831) and the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparation (1832) are prime examples of this new wave in France.

Australia's status as a new site for mission, and as a country in desperate need of providers of education, healthcare and welfare, meant that many religious men and women felt compelled to make the long journey from Europe to Australia in the nineteenth century.

All of the first women religious came from the new French and Irish orders. The first Catholic nuns in Australia were the Sisters of Charity (founded in 1816) who arrived from Ireland in 1838 in order to minister to women convicts in the Female Factory at Parramatta.

In 1846, a group of Sisters of Mercy from Ireland arrived in the Swan River Colony (now Western Australia) and established the first secondary school for girls in the whole of Australia.

In 1855, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition arrived in Fremantle in Western Australia. In 1863 a group of Sisters of the Good Shepherd arrived in Melbourne; 1866 saw the first Presentation Sisters (founded 1805) arrive in Tasmania from Ireland; and in 1875, sisters of Loretto (later renamed Loreto), from the Irish branch of Mary Ward's English Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, established themselves in Ballarat.

Shortly after, in 1882, French women from the Society of the Sacred Heart arrived in Sydney, and Sisters of the Faithful Companions of Jesus arrived in Melbourne, in order to found schools. All of these Orders spread throughout Australia.

By mid-century, Australian conditions also animated Australian responses. The first of these was a foundation of religious women specifically for Australian conditions - the Sisters of the Good Samaritan, founded by Archbishop Bede Polding in 1857.

An English Benedictine and the first Catholic Bishop of Australia, Polding envisioned an Australia influenced by the principles of Benedictine monasticism. Appalled at the conditions faced by many in the streets of rapidly-expanding Sydney, Polding instructed the Sisters of the Good Samaritan to care primarily for destitute women and to educate children, but also to "apply themselves to every other charitable work."

Similarly, the gold rushes led to particular circumstances of need. The gold rush in Victoria, beginning in mid-1851, led to extraordinary population growth and wealth, but its downside was deserted wives, destitute families, orphaned children, prostitutes, opium addicts, alcoholics, and a sprawling "canvas town" of tents and huts flourishing across South Melbourne.

It is worth remembering that, in this period, no government provided social services. There were no unemployment benefits, no public healthcare, no compulsory education. It was the religious sisters who responded to these societal needs with the provision of education, healthcare, orphanages and refuges.

Regional areas of Australia faced other problems of poverty and the tyranny of distance from centres of education and welfare provision. It was to these needs that Mary MacKillop first addressed herself, in the tiny town of Penola in South Australia, midway between Melbourne and Adelaide.

In 1867, her new order of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart was founded, the first religious order for women established by an Australian woman.

MacKillop's schools were the first in which children of means, and those without, were not segregated in class. The Sisters of St Joseph also became providers of welfare, and Josephite establishments, such as the House of Providence in East Melbourne, became places of refuge and welcome.

Mary MacKillop was clearly a charismatic foundress. This does not mean "charismatic" in our conventional understanding of the term, although she may have been that also. Rather, it means an individual whom Catholics understand as being gifted by the Holy Spirit with a particular divine spiritual gift, which is used, not for the individual herself, but for the benefit of the whole community established by her.

This founding charism becomes embedded in the community but becomes deadened if locked into a fixed expression. It is for this reason that the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) called upon all religious Orders of men and women to revisit their founding charism and to renew it for the contemporary age.

The Sisters of St Joseph, while now not recognisable in the outward form that Mary MacKillop established, would see themselves as true to her founding spirit, re-expressed for the 21st Century.

The specific needs of basic education and welfare for which religious Orders of women were first brought to, or founded in, Australia have largely been met, and hence religious sisters in Australia now direct themselves to the pressing concerns of their own day.

Although their educational and health services are landmarks on the Australian scene, sisters themselves are now rarely actively involved in the actual provision of these services. Many have moved into the tertiary sector as lecturers or into the administrative aspects of healthcare.

The plight of asylum seekers, trafficked women, women in situations of violence and poverty, the provision of hospices, aged care facilities, spiritual direction and so on, are now some of the many ministries of women religious in Australia.

The increasing opportunities for women to be involved in such work without having to take religious vows in order to carry them out is partly responsible for a rapid decline in the numbers of women joining religious orders in Australia.

The contribution of women religious to Australian society, however, has been, and still is, profound, even if largely unrecognized and unacknowledged by many Australians today.

Catherine Kovesi is a Senior Lecturer in History in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne. She has published widely both in Australian religious history and in Italian Renaissance history. Her most recent book is "Pitch Your Tents on Distant Shores: A History of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand and Tahiti" (Playright, 2010).

Presentation Australia 

• Our founder, Nano Nagle
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We are Presentation people – Presentation Sisters and others who identify as Presentation in our life and work.  

In Australia, there are six independent congregations of Presentation Sisters. The congregations come together around their shared heritage as one supportive Presentation community – The Presentation Society of Australia.  

As Presentation people, we are called to speak and act for justice and respond with compassion wherever we are. 

Presentation people in Australia are committed to justice as part of the global Presentation community. 

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Brescia to France 

The Ursulines, originally called "The Company of St Ursula", were founded in 1535 by Angela Merici in the town of Brescia, northern Italy. Members of the Company of St Ursula did not take vows, but simply promised "virginity", and lived in their own family homes, supporting themselves by their work.

After Angela's death in 1540 and under the influence of the Council of Trent (1545-1563), strongly promoted by St Charles Borromeo of Milan, members of the Company became involved in the teaching of Christian Doctrine. By about 1590 the Company reached France. Parisian noblewomen, anxious to support the reforms of the Council, undertook to establish religious communities of women in Paris and elsewhere.

Thus by 1612, with the Papal approval of the Congregation of Paris, the original idea of Angela's "Company of St Ursula" gave way to that of a monastic order in which the members were called "Ursulines", with strict canonical enclosure, though the nuns managed to retain their apostolate of teaching by taking a fourth vow of education of girls.

France to Germany to England

In 1660, just 125 years after the formation of the Company, Ursulines went from Paris to open a school in Erfurt in Saxony. From there a foundation was made in 1700 in Duderstadt, an ancient Hanoverian town. 

During the Napoleonic wars the nuns were expelled from their monastery. Later they returned to a building almost in ruins, but they restored their home and reopened the school which was to flourish. Difficulties beset them again in 1871 when Prussia was victorious in war against France and Prince Otto von Bismarck became Chancellor. Bismarck attacked the church, enacting anti-clerical legislation. The May laws of 1873 dictated that all teaching religious orders were to be dissolved or expelled from the territories of the new German empire and their property confiscated, with education passing under the control of the state. The Ursulines were able to avoid the impact of these laws until 1877 when they finally had to leave Germany to find a home elsewhere.

They managed to establish themselves in Greenwich, London and immediately set up a school. While there they met a young Capuchin priest Fr Elzear Torreggiani who promised to help them if ever he had the opportunity. He was made bishop of Armidale New South Wales in 1879 and promptly invited the Ursulines to his diocese. Around this time many religious congregations came to Australia at the invitation of bishops, precisely to carry out the work of Catholic Education and especially since by 1882 the government had withdrawn financial aid from independent schools.

Armidale NSW

When they were expelled from Germany by the laws of the Kulturkampf in 1877, members of the Ursuline Community of Duderstadt fled to Greenwich in England. Five years later ten of them took the long voyage to Australia.

After a few days in Sydney, including attendance at the opening of St Mary's Cathedral on 8th September, they travelled by boat, train and coach to Armidale. There they were welcomed to their new home late in the evening of 12th September, 1882. One week later they had begun their new school. They also taught in St Mary's Parish School. Among the students were boys up to the age of fifteen – quite a new experience for the sisters.

After almost one hundred years of educating girls and providing boarding school facilities for them, in 1976 St Ursula's College amalgamated with De La Salle College becoming what is now O'Connor Catholic High School. St Mary's is still a flourishing primary school, now under the care of a lay principal. Ursulines continued to teach in O'Connor until 1998 and in St Mary's until 2000.

The Ursuline community continued living in the original building provided by Bishop Torreggiani. In 2011 after a Province discernment process a decision was made to move from this place where the founding mothers had settled. For over 125 years the sisters had shared the faith and life of the people of Armidale.

Tweed Heads NSW

In August 1917, five "pioneers" left Armidale for Tweed Heads, to establish the first "branch house". A week later they opened St Joseph's Primary School with sixty pupils; music, speech and commercial subjects were also taught.

A high school was opened with the first students sitting for the Intermediate Certificate in 1929. The Ursulines closed St Angela's Convent in 1951, and the Lismore Presentation sisters took over the running of St Joseph's school.

In 1919, the sisters accepted the invitation from Bishop O'Connor, of Armidale, to go to the small town of Guyra. The sisters named their convent St Augustine's and the primary school St Mary of the Angels.

In 1921 a small secondary school was begun. It closed in 1958. The Ursulines left Guyra in 1969, with the Sisters of Mercy from Monte St Angelo, North Sydney, continuing the work commenced by the Ursulines in Guyra.

Dutton Park QLD

The Ursulines first came to Dutton Park on 3rd January, 1919. They set up house in "Wahcumba", renamed "Rosary Hill". This was situated some distance from St Ita's Chapel across Gladstone Road at "Borva" which served as Chapel, Presbytery and classroom.

School opened on 27th January and the following April the foundation stone for a new school was laid. In January 1924 the nuns moved to Ingelnuck, adjacent to the Church and School. Following the Government's approval of St Ita's as a Secondary School in 1932, a new school building was commenced which was to accommodate both levels of education until a new Secondary School, to be known as St Ursula's College, was built in 1956, to be extended in 1964. Developments in education in the 1970s required careful discernment about whether further building should occur or a decision made about the viability of the College.

Ultimately a decision was taken to close the College in 1974. In exchange for the College building the Archdiocesan authorities provided a new convent to accommodate seven sisters. Two units for aged sisters were built with funding from the Commonwealth Government and Ursulines continued to enjoy these facilities until the final move from Dutton Park in 2005.

"Duporth", Oxley QLD

Archbishop Duhig blessed and formally opened "Duporth" on 7 December 1924. By 1938 there were 35 students coming from distant parts of Queensland, as far away as Hungerford and Normanton on the Gulf of Carpentaria. "Duporth" never became a big school but was always much loved by its pupils for its very homeliness and the individual care which this allowed.

Under pressure to provide education to larger numbers, the Ursuline province leadership closed the school at the end of 1957.

Ashbury (Sydney) NSW

In 1929 the parish of Ashbury was established. Father Edward McMahon, the priest in charge, invited the Ursulines to come from Armidale and they opened school on 4th February 1930 with both primary and secondary classes. 

On 31st January, 1939 the new building of St Ursula's College was opened on land beside the convent. When the College was closed in 1965, many of the students continued their education at St Ursula's College, Kingsgrove.  In 1999 the Ursuline convent was demolished and residential homes built on the property continue to ensure that there is an Ursuline presence in Ashbury today.

Toowoomba QLD

At the end of 1930 "Kerrielaw" became the residence for five Ursulines and the nucleus for a boarding and day school, officially opened and blessed in February, 1931. Four sisters were added to the community in February 1940 to staff the newly established parish primary school of Our Lady of Lourdes in Newtown.

A new venture of co-education began in 1971 with about 80 senior girls from St Ursula's joining the senior boys of Downlands College. This arrangement lasted until 1993 when the Senior classes were resumed at St Ursula's.

In 2006 St Ursula's College was incorporated and became a company under the Commonwealth Corporations Act in order to engage the experience and expertise of many lay people who have worked in partnership since then with the Ursuline Sisters for the good governance of the college. In recent years, owing to the fact the Ursulines are no longer able to maintain their role of responsibility as Members (owners) of the Company of St Ursula's College, negotiations have taken place to transfer the governance of the College.

On 19th August 2016 the role of the Ursuline Sisters as Members of the Company of St. Ursula’s College Toowoomba and the property of the college was transferred to the Corporation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba.

The college continues to be governed by the Board of Directors who are now responsible to the Bishop of Toowoomba as Member. St. Ursula's College continues to be a Catholic College in the Ursuline tradition within the Diocese of Toowoomba.  St Ursula's College Toowoomba continues to thrive as a boarding and day school for girls.   www.st-ursula.qld.edu.au

Kingsgrove (Sydney) NSW

In January 1949, two Ursuline sisters, accepting an invitation from Father Eamon Clune, the parish priest of Kingsgrove, began travelling each day from Ashbury to the primary school at Bexley North, then within the Kingsgrove parish. Fr Clune pressed ahead with the required buildings for Kingsgrove, and the primary school, opened in 1953 with over three hundred pupils, was staffed by Ursulines.  While having connections to the school there are presently no Ursuline sisters who minister at Our Lady of Fatima School.

On the 5th February 1957 St Ursula's College opened with 54 students. The Ursulines took up residence in Kingsgrove in 1954 and continued their administration of St Ursula's College until 2007. However, Ursuline sisters still continue to minister in the College.

St Ursula's College Kingsgrove remains a vibrant secondary school educating young women and continuing the spirit of St Angela in society. At present St Ursula's is undergoing large renovations and refurbishment in accordance with modern educational requirements. Part of the refurbishment required the demolition of the original convent in 69 Caroline St.  The College celebrated its Diamond Jubilee Anniversary in February 2017.    www.stursulakingsgrove.org  

Macedon VIC

The span of Ursuline life in Macedon, Victoria, was just 5 years (1950-1955). It began with the foundation of a boarding school in what was previously the Golf House, Mount Macedon. However, demands for sisters to staff schools and to become fully trained professionally led to its closure in favour of places with a "higher population density".

Canberra ACT

The first Ursuline community in Canberra opened in 1958 as a House of Studies. Ursula College followed in 1968 as a residence for 200 female students within the ANU (Australian National University). Sisters studied at the University and Signadou Teachers College and over the years taught at Catholic Girls High School (later Merici College), St Michael's School, (Lyneham) and afterwards at Kaleen, Charnwood and Gungahlin. They also engaged in pastoral work in the parishes of Aranda, Kaleen and Gungahlin, and the coordination of the Young Catholic Women's Interfaith Fellowship program.

Other Places

In more recent years Sisters have moved into smaller communities allowing involvement in diverse ministries in ACT, New South Wales, Victoria, Northern Territory, Queensland and the Philippines.

Have a look at our Resources page for list of books about each foundation

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Main Image: Statue of St Angela Merici located in the Parish Church of Desenzano, Italy

Presentation Sisters celebrate 110 years of service and dedication to Iona

13 june 2017.

The sisters of the Presentation Order with Archbishop Costelloe paying homage to the newly erected Nano Nagle statue in the Presentation Garden (photo by Natashya Fernandez).

On Friday 2 June, staff, students and distinguished guests gathered at Iona Presentation Primary School for a Thanksgiving Mass and Garden Blessing in celebration of the Presentation Sisters 110 years of service and dedication to Iona.

The morning was spent recognising the incredible presence the Sisters have had at the school for so many years, and thanking them for their unwavering support and dedication that has touched the lives of so many in the Iona school community.

Also recognised on the day was the founder of the Presentation Sisters, Nano Nagle, whose mission to bring light to the world was seen through her endless passion and commitment to helping the less fortunate, and whose message is lived on through the Sisters today and the values they have instilled in the students of Iona.

The Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Timothy Costelloe and concelebrated with Frs James D’Souza, Chris Ross and Rodrigo Ponte, with the blessing of a ‘Presentation’ Garden and abstract mosaic.

Archbishop Costelloe thanked the Presentation Sisters for the amazing contribution they have given with their presence not only to the school, but to the church in Western Australia.

“Today especially, we celebrate this Mass in which we have a chance to come closer to Jesus and, through him, closer to each other. To reflect on just how important the Presentation Sisters, and the spirit which animates them has been and continues to be for this school,” he said.

Catholic Education Western Australia joins Iona Presentation Primary School in thanking the Presentation Sisters as they hand over responsibility for the school to Archbishop Costelloe.

Presentation Sisters Western Australia Congregation Leader, Sr Kathleen Laffan, said that it was a privilege to be present at the Mass and celebrations.

“We are here today to celebrate the 110 years that we have journeyed together, Presentation Sisters, students, parents and the wider community. All in the footsteps of our found, Nano Nagle. “I hope the newly erected statue of Nano will be an inspiration to all students, staff and parents in the years ahead” she said.

Congregation leader of the Presentation Sisters in Western Australia, Sr Kathleen Laffan, with Archbishop Costelloe and Iona Presentation Primary School Principal Jennifer Anderson (photo by Natashya Fernandez).

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