The Holy See in 1883 asked the Irish Augustinian priests to serve in this area. They were led by Bishop John Hutchinson who sought the valuable help of some Religious who would dedicate their lives to the people of the area. He visited the Sisters in Dungarvan with the result many volunteered. Five Sisters were chosen. They were Mother de Sales Meagher, who resigned her office as Superior of Dungarvan only to take up the same post at Cooktown - thousands of miles away - Mother Josephine Jones, Srs. Joseph McGrath, Evangelist Morrissey, Rodriguez Sheehy.

When all arrangements were made for the long journey to North Queensland, the Sisters set sail for Australia on 21^st April, 1888. When they arrived in Cooktown they found a spacious brick Convent in readiness for them - built in part by the generous people in North Queensland, and in part by the pennies of the poor in Hoxton, London, who had listened to their Augustinian Fathers’ plea for aid and who had given "the widow’s mite" to help build this Convent in Cooktown. The Sisters of Mercy, Dungarvan, were ever mindful of their daughter house in far away Queensland and sent out not only Professed Sisters but Novices and Postulants until that daughter house was capable of finding its own members. Soon it was a flourishing mother house sending forth vigorous branches throughout northern Queensland.

The first school of the Sisters was St. Mary’s, Cooktown. Within a year a boarding school section was ready for occupation with accommodation for up to eighty boarders. In 1912 secondary classes were added, and the school became widely known in the early decades of the century for its high standard of education for girls. However, wartime conditions and the declining population in the Cooktown region forced the closure of St. Mary’s in 1941.

In October 1892, just four years after the establishment of St. Mary’s four Sisters of Mercy from Cooktown were invited to take over a small Catholic school in Cairns run by Misses K. Bermingham and C. McMulkin. This was the beginning of the present day St. Monica’s College which began to accept secondary students in 1933 and now operates as an all girls secondary school.

Mareeba was the next centre where the Sisters of Mercy established a school: St. Thomas’s was opened in January 1909.

Next came St. Patrick’s at Herberton in June 1910, which was followed by the establishment there of a large boarding school for girls, the present Mt. St. Bernard College.

In 1914 a Convent school was opened in the western mining town of Chillagoe. However, it was forced to close in the late 1920s because of the collapse of mining operations.

St. Joseph’s, Atherton and St. Michael’s, Gordonvale were opened in 1923; St. Rita’s, Babinda in 1926; St. Joseph’s Parramatta Park in 1928; St. Therese’s, Edmonton in 1929; St. Augustine’s. Mossman in 1934; Good Counsel, North Cairns in 1936; St. Teresa’s, Ravenshoe in 1950; Out Lady Help of Christians, Earlville in 1964. When the diocese assumed responsibility for Thursday Island in 1968 the Sisters of Mercy took over the existing school from the Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. The Sisters of Mercy had the responsibility of administering Bethlehem Home for the Aged for the Diocese of Cairns for many years and in 1985 the people of Cooktown welcomed back the Sisters of Mercy.

The Sisters of Mercy are responsible for the beginnings of the first officially recognised Catholic education in the Diocese of Cairns.

Reference: "Mercy Convents - Waterford & Lismore" an illustrated souvenir, 1959.

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

The Archivist

Cairns Congregation Sisters of Mercy

P.O. Box 531E

Earlville QLD 4870

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.