Mount Erin Heritage

After having arrived from Ireland, on 28 May, the Sisters departed in Mr John Cox’s horse carriage for his Mangoplah station home, a journey of some 60 miles. At Mangoplah they were greeted by the Cox family with hearty Irish welcome.

Leaving the next morning, 29 May, the Sisters headed for Wagga. They were met twenty miles out of town by a large number of the leading inhabitants of the district, together with the first parish priest, Father William Bermingham, and Father John Dwyer who escorted them into town. They went to St Michael’s Church where the Te Deum was sung and God fervently thanked to the Sisters’ safe arrival.

WAGGA IN THE 1870s…

In 1870 Wagga Wagga had been established as a municipality. There were some 2,500 people within its boundaries and about 7,000 in the surrounding districts with about 7,000 acres under agriculture.

Initially the five Sisters lived in the presbytery, two small, ill-ventilated cramped rooms, vacated for their use by the priests. The priests found temporary lodging in a hotel until a very kind protestant lady, Mrs Jackson, placed at their disposal, rent free, a house which later became the first Calvary Hospital, Wagga Wagga. The stables were converted into a school for over 130 children.

SITE FOR THE CONVENT

On 3 June 1874 Mr John Donnelly purchased 40 acres of land on a small hill overlooking the town, as a site for the convent. John Cox then provided the finance for building the convent, which had been designed by the two Byrne sisters, whose father was a Dublin architect.

However, faced with many unforseen difficulties, costs rose. It was with the generosity and good will of many others that the convent became a reality. The Sisters moved into residence at Mount Erin on 20 November 1876.

SCHOOL ON SITE

Each day a horse-drawn cab took the Sisters to the stable school where they first taught. In January 1978 the school was transferred to the lower floor of the western wing of the main building of the new convent at Mount Erin. This school became known as Saint Mary’s.

To be continued..................................

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