Gunnedah was the first branch house of the Convent of Mercy, Singleton, which was founded from Ennis, Ireland, in 1875. On 3 January 1879, the Sisters of Mercy came to Gunnedah which, at that time, was in the Diocese of Maitland. A four-roomed rented cottage became the first Convent of Mercy in Gunnedah.

On 14 September 1879 the foundation stone of the Bloomfield Street Convent was laid. Gunnedah remained a branch house of Singleton until 1887 when, with the alteration of the boundaries of Armidale and Maitland dioceses, Gunnedah Convent of Mercy became an autonomous Congregation in the diocese of Armidale.

On 24 September 1887 four professed Sisters and one postulant from Singleton Convent of Mercy were given by Singleton to Gunnedah for the purpose of forming an independent foundation in Gunnedah.

The Superior of the Gunnedah Congregation was Mother Mary Aloysius O’Driscoll who as a postulant had left Ennis in 1875 for the Singleton foundation.

The Gunnedah Congregation opened branch houses chiefly in north and north-west New South Wales: Narrabi in 1889, Inverell in 1891, Moree in 1899, Walcha in 1911, Armidale Orphanage in 1919, Mungindi in 1924, Malabar (Sydney) in 1931, Delungra in 1956, Bingara in 1985, Kootingal in 1986.

On 15 August 1919, a group of thirteen Sisters from Emmaville Convent of Mercy, established in 1885 and from which one branch house was opened in Deepwater in 1914, amalgamated with the Gunnedah to become one of the eight Provinces of the Australian Union of the Sisters of Mercy.

Following the official dissolution of the Australian Union of the Sisters of Mercy and the Australian Federation of the Religious Sisters of Mercy on 15 December 1981, the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia was established with seventeen Mercy Congregations of Pontifical Right sharing a common Constitution as member Congregations of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia (ISMA). Gunnedah Congregation became a member of the Institute on 15 December 1981.

Initially, members of the Gunnedah Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy were engaged in the ministry of education in primary and secondary schools and the visitation of "the poor, sick and ignorant", as expressed in the fourth vow of the Sisters of Mercy.

In recent years Sisters have moved from education to health care, care of the aged, rural ministry, ministry to AIDS sufferers, parish ministry, retreat and spiritual direction in an effort to respond to need in the spirit of Catherine McAuley who founded the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin in 1831.

In 1997 the Gunnedah Sisters of Mercy are launching their associates in Mercy programme which invites people who have experienced a call to share in, and contribute to, the life and corporate mission of the Mercy community to establish a formal association with the Sisters of Mercy as Associates in Mercy.

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

The Archivist

Gunnedah Congregation Sisters of Mercy

P.O. Box 378

GUNNEDAH NSW 2380

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.