Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Australia's first saint, together with Friar Julian Tenison Woods, set up a school for underprivileged children in Penola in 1866. In doing so they started something much more. Saint Mary's Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart have continued their work and celebrate their 150th anniversary this year.

Naturally, given Parramatta's history, the Sisters of St Joseph have had a long history in Parramatta, with the establishment of their congregation in Granville in 1885 where they built a convent and a boarding school. In fact, Saint Mary's relationship with Parramatta extends to her first miracle. The miracle of Veronica Hopson, who lived in the Catholic diocese of Parramatta, was accepted by the Vatican in 1993, and in January 1995 Pope John Paul II beatified Mary during a mass at Randwick racecourse, Sydney. The tradition of service of the Sisters of St Joseph is woven into the history of Parramatta. It was the Sisters of St Joseph who looked after and served 800 female convicts and 300 children confined in the Parramatta Female Factory, a place of national heritage significance to the Parramatta community and the nation. The sisters worked with fervour, lobbying the governor to allow the women to open a public laundry and take in needlework for employment.

Not only did the Sisters of St Joseph serve Parramatta through care for the disadvantaged and marginalised, Saint Mary of the Cross wrote of 'bringing to birth a dream to give hope and meaning to thousands of children through the gift of education'. They did this when they founded the Holy Trinity Primary School in 1885. The Holy Trinity Primary School continued under the sisters' administration until 1976 when the first lay principal, Miss Shirley Reid, was appointed. The original boarding school now serves the local community as the Holy Trinity Primary School. The current principal, Helen Boyer, proudly services under the Josephite traditions and operates a Junior Joeys group in primary grades that operates under the motto: 'Never see a need without doing something about it.'

The Sisters of St Joseph were not the first nuns in Parramatta. They followed in the footsteps of the very first Catholic sisters to arrive in Australia, the Sisters of Charity, in 1836. A 38-year-old novice by the name of Elizabeth Williams arrived with the Sisters of Charity. She was the first person in Australia to take religious vows and she did so in Parramatta on 9 April 1839. She became known as Mother Francis Xavier Williams and she founded St Joseph's Orphanage in Hobart. Some 50 years later, when the Sisters of Mercy first arrived in Parramatta in 1888 at the behest of the bishop, they discovered that nothing had been prepared for them, and it was the Sisters of Charity, who were already established, who took them in and supported them.

The tradition of assisting sisters of different orders continued in 1977 when the missionary sisters arrived as refugees from Vietnam. They arrived, as many refugees do, with nothing, but the Sisters of St Joseph in Granville gave their convent to the Missionary Sisters of Mary, Queen of the World, and the Sisters of Mercy in Burraneer Bay did the same. The gifting of the convents from the Josephites and the Sisters of Mercy provided them with a sanctuary and allowed them to administer their work.

The Missionary Sisters of Mary, Queen of the World, continue their outreach programs, even today, through the Holy Trinity Parish in Granville with an active congregation of 60. The Sisters of Mercy grew to develop the Mercy Works, which administers aid projects in Australian and internationally. They partner with numerous other organisations to support marginalised and displaced people, and Principal Stephen M Walsh of their school, Our Lady of Mercy College, continues their work in Parramatta today.

I cannot talk about nuns in Parramatta without mentioning the wonderful Maronite sisters, who also arrived in the seventies. They continue to teach and empower children at Our Lady of Lebanon College in Harris Park, where Principal Sister Marlene Chedid and her teaching staff continue their good works.

All these extraordinary woman from different orders have made their mark on the spiritual and social fabric of Parramatta and Australia. Around the Parramatta community we know some of them as troublemakers in the best possible sense. People who move to change the world quite often have to stir things up, and some of these women have been extraordinary in their time in stirring things up to make things better for those around them. I congratulation them and thank them all for their service to the people of Parramatta, particularly the Josephites because it is their 150th anniversary in Australia this year.

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