In 1872, at the request of Matthew Quinn, first Bishop of Bathurst, NSW, a community, made up of Sisters Teresa MacDonald, Hyacinth Quinlan, Joseph Dwyer and a prospective postulant, Ada Braham, was sent from Adelaide. They established a convent and school a few miles from Bathurst, the cathedral city, at Queen Charlotte’s Vale, later called the Vale, now Perthville.

It was at the Bishop’s request that the Perthville group, now numbering over twenty, become a separate diocesan congregation, under the authority of the bishop. Begun in 1876, the process was ratified in Rome in 1888, by Cardinal Simeoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. Similar foundation communities of sisters were sent to other dioceses: Wanganui, New Zealand in 1880, Goulburn NSW in 1882, Lochinvar NSW in 1883 and Westbury, Tasmania in 1884. In 1968 these five autonomous congregation formed the Australian-New Zealand Federation of Sisters of St Joseph.

The present (1997) membership of the Perthville congregation is seventy-seven, spread through towns and villages of the Bathurst and Wilcannia Forbes dioceses, Sydney and Wewak, Papua New Guinea.

Press, M. `Sisters of St. Joseph-Diocesan Variety’, Australasian Catholic Record 49, 3, 193-215. 1972

If further information is required about individual Sisters the following address is given:

The Archivist

Congregation Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph

Tenison Woods Avenue,

PERTHVILLE NSW 2796

In writing to the Archivist, it would be appropriate that a financial contribution be made for the Archivist’s time and expertise.

Religious Orders or Congregations have released the details on their members. It is understood that the copyright of any material (including the listing of the names of the Sisters) relevant to a particular Order or Congregation in this publication remains with the relevant Order or Congregation.