Presentation Sisters Convent - Herston
Nano Nagle, the foundress of the Presentation Sisters, gathered her first small community in Cork, Ireland, in 1775. The Sisters devoted themselves to the education of the poor.
In 1874 a community of Sisters came from Kildare in Ireland to the inland town of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. They were soon known as excellent educators, not only in primary schools as in Ireland but in the convent high schools they were asked to establish. In 1899 Bishop Higgins, newly appointed to the Rockhampton diocese in Central Queensland, asked the Wagga Sisters to staff a parish school and open a high school, as well as a boarding school in Longreach.
In 1924 the Presentation Sisters came to the parish to establish their first convent in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Mothers Patrick and Ursula, after discussion with Archbishop Duhig, accepted the challenge of starting a new school at the Herston Parish. The primary school of St Joan of Arc was opened on the 14th July, 1924. When 5 pupils were enrolled on 3rd August the convent was blessed and formally opened by the Archbishop. Numbers reached as high as 130 by about two years later and stabilised at this level for forty years and the school was always staffed by the Presentation Sisters. With declining numbers the school closed in 1968. To better utilize the land behind the presbytery the Presentation Sisters built “Ballygriffin” as a home for their retired sisters.
In 1874 a community of Sisters came from Kildare in Ireland to the inland town of Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. They were soon known as excellent educators, not only in primary schools as in Ireland but in the convent high schools they were asked to establish. In 1899 Bishop Higgins, newly appointed to the Rockhampton diocese in Central Queensland, asked the Wagga Sisters to staff a parish school and open a high school, as well as a boarding school in Longreach.
In 1924 the Presentation Sisters came to the parish to establish their first convent in the Archdiocese of Brisbane. Mothers Patrick and Ursula, after discussion with Archbishop Duhig, accepted the challenge of starting a new school at the Herston Parish. The primary school of St Joan of Arc was opened on the 14th July, 1924. When 5 pupils were enrolled on 3rd August the convent was blessed and formally opened by the Archbishop. Numbers reached as high as 130 by about two years later and stabilised at this level for forty years and the school was always staffed by the Presentation Sisters. With declining numbers the school closed in 1968. To better utilize the land behind the presbytery the Presentation Sisters built “Ballygriffin” as a home for their retired sisters.