Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My wife, Catherine; daughter, Georgina; mother, Eileen; three sisters, Denise, Robyn and Julieanne; mother-in-law, Beverley; and her mother, Joan, all attended Mount Erin at Wagga Wagga. The school holds a very special place in our family and many families across the Riverina and indeed the country. On the weekend, the sesquicentenary of the Presentation Sisters' arrival in Wagga Wagga was celebrated. Indeed, Australia owes a great debt of gratitude to those five valiant women who, in early 1874, left the country of their birth, Ireland, to make their way to live on the other side of the world. They were Presentation Sisters who not only made their way to what could almost be described as a frontier town but forged a pathway of education which is a stronghold of schooling to this day. The original sisters were the Reverend Mother Mary Byrne, her sister Mother Mary Xavier Byrne, Mother Mary Stanislaus Dunne, Sister Mary Paul Fay and Mother Mary Evangelist Kelly. What remarkable pioneers.

By the end of 1877, six novices, four from Ireland and two Australians, had joined the original five, and by 1890 the magnificent Mount Erin on the hill had been built. And the rest, as they say, is history. At 64 years young, Sister Bernadette Pattison is the youngest remaining Presentation Sister in the congregation. She said that the weekend celebrations reminded her exactly why she joined the sisterhood 44 years ago. She said:

Yesterday was a wonderful celebration where we celebrated with the community, people we worked with, our friends, our families … It brings to mind the real intention of why I became a presentation sister.