St Joseph’s Catholic School, Mundingburra

1924 – PRESENT

St Catherine’s Catholic College, The Whitsundays

1925 – PRESENT

Since the building of a sugar mill there in 1890, the town of Proserpine had begun to grow significantly. By the 1920s the need for sisters to establish a permanent school in the area was becoming desperate. Father Walsh requested that the Sisters of Mercy establish a school in Proserpine, and Sisters Mercy Tarrant, Bernard Wood and Veronica Wall arrived there in 1925. Local fundraising provided the funds for a school to be built. It was a timber building on stilts, with a large central room and wide verandahs. Classes continued to be taught in this building for 35 years. In 2012, a new campus was established to cater for increasing student enrolments and subsequently secondary education was introduced in 2013.

1927

St Colman’s Catholic School, Home Hill

1927 – PRESENT

The Mercy Sisters led by Mother Benedicta opened the first school in Home Hill in 1927. She and her colleagues resided in St Brigid’s Convent and taught classes at St Colman’s Church. A formal school building was completed in the 1930s, and it was later improved with the addition of verandahs and partitions to separate classrooms. In 1986 Sister Alexis was the only remaining sister at St Colman’s School, and she retired at the end of that year.

1928

St Columba’s School, Belgian Gardens

1928 – 1975

Bishop Shiel travelled north from Rockhampton to attend the opening of a new Sisters of Mercy convent school at Belgian Gardens in 1928. From its opening until improvements were made in 1940, classes at St Columba’s School were held underneath the church. The new school building was completed just in time to be commandeered for military purposes during the Second World War. After the closure of the school the original building was relocated in 1975 and became a PCYC building in Belgian Gardens.