Obituary

Vale Sr Julianne Tapping 

It is with great sadness that we report the recent passing of Sister Julianne Tapping PBVM. 

Many alumni will remember Julianne as their classmate at St Mary’s College, while others will remember her fondly as their teacher.

Born in Hobart, Julianne commenced her education at Mount Carmel College, and transferred to St Mary’s College in Year 4 in 1954. Julianne loved sports, excelling in netball and athletics, and she was very proud to be appointed House Captain of College in her final year. In that year too, she was Senior Athletics Champion of the school. Julianne said that she first discerned her religious vocation one day when Sister Dolores was speaking about vocations: on completion of her schooling, Julianne entered the Presentation Novitiate at Gardenvale in Melbourne. She took the name Emmanuel and began her teacher training. This she continued at Sacred Heart College in Launceston in 1968-9.

St Mary’s College welcomed Julianne back in 1970 as a Year 7 teacher. In 1977 she commenced a Theology degree at the Catholic College of Divinity in Melbourne, becoming in 1979 the first Tasmanian woman to obtain the Bachelor of Theology. Julianne returned to St Mary’s College where she taught Higher School Certificate Religion and was a Year 11 Homeroom teacher, as well as taking on the role of Religious Education Coordinator, with a strong interest in pastoral care.

Sister Julianne was a very spiritual person, those gifts being recognised and utilised within the various schools at which she taught and nurtured during the various related Courses that she undertook, including at St Mary’s College. What appears to stand out is not so much what Julianne did although that was certainly mentioned, but how she did it. A number of alumni from her teaching days have expressed their love for her, describing her variously as ‘a lovely person with a beautiful soul’, her ministry being one of ‘soul-nurturing’, ‘her gentle presence around the school and she being the one you wanted to run into when you were having a bad day.’

A parent wrote, ‘I was so conscious of the gentle, calming, positive influence that Julianne was in the lives of my daughters in their last years at school’ and another student, ‘she was such a caring, quiet person who was always so encouraging to us all and never had a cross or harsh word.’

You are invited to view Sister Julianne’s full obituary here.

Sister Gabrielle Morgan

Congregational Leader of the Tasmanian Presentation Sisters