Long, long before white settlement, this land belonged to the Aboriginal people. Education was their lives: the telling of stories, the singing of songs, celebrating the ebb and flow of the seasons.

The arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 heralded not only the beginning of penal settlement but also the birth of the Catholic Church in Australia.

When Australia was a British colony, the first official Catholic chaplains, Philip Connolly and John Joseph Therry, arrived on the continent in May 1820. Father Therry established a Catholic school in Parramatta and it began operations in January 1821. The school was open to all students regardless of whether they were Catholic or not.

The history of this Archdiocese and its Catholic schools mirrors the story of Catholic Education in Australia. The first Catholic Schools in our Archdiocese were opened in Yass (1847), Queanbeyan (1851), Goulburn (1854), Boorowa (1858) and Braidwood (1859). Throughout this period Catholic schools developed their distinct flavour and character. Classes were extraordinarily large, teachers were mostly religious sisters and brothers, and resources were scant.

Currently, we have 54 Catholic Schools in our Archdiocese and, in our history, have also had 34 schools closed including schools in towns such as Marulan, Gunning, Cobargo and Adaminaby, and schools in Canberra suburbs of Yarralumla, Manuka, Dickson, Lyneham and Braddon.

Australia’s Catholic school landscape has since grown now to more than 1,750 schools, 770,000 students, and nearly 100,000 staff.

Our heritage is rich, our present is encouraging, and we have much to be proud of.