Our History

St Mary’s School was founded in 1927 and staffed by the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. The sisters worked, for the first 10 years, in a lean-to beside the Church, the present School/Parish Hall being the original Church building. The sisters withdrew in 1986 leaving the management of the school to the Catholic Education Office.

The first two brick classrooms were opened on the 29th January 1939 by Archbishop Prendiville. Subsequent classrooms were added in 1959 and 1969. In 1970 the current Science/Music Room was built. Sometime after 1970 an Administration Area was added to the existing classrooms. The children’s toilet area was built in 1980. In 1994 a major building program was completed to provide a new administration area, staffroom and three classrooms. In 2011, a new library, toilet block and uniform shop was added. A new portable classroom to ensure we had enough room to establish a single stream school was added in 2015.​

The Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart was founded in 1866 in Penola in South Australia by blessed Mary MacKillop (Mother Mary of the Cross) and Father Julian E. Tenison Woods. The Catholic education of poor children was the Sisters’ prime task as well as undertaking urgently needed works of charity.