Anecdotes from the Archives

Presentation Sisters...and farmers

When we look at the layout of St Mary’s College today, it is hard to believe that the early Sisters tried very hard over the decades to be self-sufficient on the hilly land behind the convent.

Mother Antony Burke came to the College as a young music teacher in the late 1890s, joining the convent as a novitiate a few years later. In her memoir, Mother Antony gives a number of accounts of the Sisters working hard towards self-sufficiency as far as meat, poultry and vegetables were concerned.

Even before her time, there is evidence that a small hut up on the Brisbane Street perimeter housed a shepherd, who was responsible for tending to various sheep and cattle which the Sisters ran on the hillside, which is now covered with buildings and classrooms. This was the situation when Mother Antony first came to the school. 

There seems to have been small successes in growing animals for food, which would have helped defray costs at a time when the Sisters struggled to make ends meet. Milking cows were also kept to help with the provision of daily milk, cream and butter. Several cows were known to have calved and the calves sold.

From Mother Antony’s account, it seems that potatoes, pumpkins and carrots were grown for the consumption of the Sisters and the boarders.

Success in producing poultry for their table seemed to evade the Sisters. Mother Antony recalled a time when the community was determined to develop turkeys for the Christmas table. One summer the Sisters took a heavily guarded basket of turkey hatchlings on holidays to Taroona, where a house had been lent to them. Alas, the family cat was left behind at the house, and was extremely keen to devour the proposed Christmas delicacies at once. The Sisters addressed this problem by tying the cat by its leg to a chair. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, there was no RSPCA at the time.

The hatchlings may have survived the cat, but according to Mother Antony, they did not survive beyond a few months. Several other attempts were made to grow turkeys and chickens, but without success. 

It is thought-provoking to look at our garden boxes successfully producing all sorts of vegetables under the clever hands of Phil Shanny (Murphy's Café Manager, Sustainability Officer) today and reflect on the long history of sustainability at St Mary’s College.