<- To 1840
| 1841 | Caroline Chisholm granted barracks for her Female Immigrants’ Home; arrival of first priest in South Australia, Fr Benson Perth schoolteacher Robert D’Arcy requests that priests be sent; Fr Therry transcribes confession of Patrick Minehan to murder |
| 1842 | Polding named Archbishop of Sydney, Anglican bishop protests; Mary MacKillop baptised in Melbourne |
| 1843 | Christian Brothers arrive in Sydney (leave in 1847); first Catholic church in WA begins construction; first mass in Brisbane; 3 Italian and one Swiss priest begin mission to Aborigines on Stradbroke Is; Orange Lodge formed in Victoria to “resist … the lawless conduct of the Popish mob” |
| 1844 | Robert Willson arrives as first Catholic bishop of Hobart; Francis Murphy arrives as first Catholic bishop of Adelaide; Roman Catholic Orphan School opened at Parramatta with the transfer of 113 orphans from Waverley; First Australian Provincial Council held in Sydney |
| 1845 | Bishop Brady consecrated as first bishop of Perth; Marist Fathers arrive and establish at Woolloomooloo; Australasian Holy Catholic Guild founded; Friendly Brothers Society formed to assist Melbourne orphans |
| 1846 | Dom Rosendo Salvado founds the New Norcia mission (later abbey); Sisters of Mercy arrive in Perth; Polding gives evidence of effects of aboriginal dispossession; Fr Angelo Confalonieri arrives in Port Essington as the first missionary in Northern Australia; Irish Catholic mob attacks Orangemen in Melbourne, shots fired; Caroline Chisholm replies to John Dunmore Lang’s accusations; J.K. Heydon imports shipment of Catholic books |
| 1847 | Sisters of Charity begin work in Hobart; Publication of John Dunmore Lang‘s Popery in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, and How to Check it Effectually |
| 1848 | Sr Scholastica Gibbons founds House of the Good Shepherd women’s home in Sydney; Benedictine nuns arrive in Sydney; Two Austrian Jesuits arrive in South Australia; James Goold arrives in Melbourne as first bishop; Ordination of Daniel Vincent Maurus O’Connell, first native-born priest; First shipment of Irish famine orphans arrive; Barzillai Quaife’s Sydney Protestant Lectures on Prophecy identify Catholic Church with Antichrist |
| 1849 | St Peter Chanel‘s remains arrive in Sydney on their way back to France after his martyrdom in Futuna |
| 1850 | Freeman’s Journal begun by McEncroe; Caroline Chisholm’s first chartered emigrant ship leaves London |
| 1851 | Gold rushes begin, Polding preaches against sly grog on the Turon diggings; Henry Parkes attacks Catholicism as a “grovelling superstition”; Bishop Brady leaves Rome for Perth contrary to papal orders |
| 1852 | Polding’s visit to Perth ensures implementation of Bishop Brady’s suspension; Lyndhurst, Glebe, Sydney established as Benedictine secondary school with classical curriculum |
| 1853 | Transportation ends in Van Diemen’s Land (renamed Tasmania); Death of aboriginal seminarian Conaci in Rome |
| 1854 | First Australian conference of St Vincent de Paul Society and orphanage established in Melbourne; Fr Patrick Smyth calls for peaceful resistance at Eureka Stockade; Death of Polding’s assistant, Bishop Davis; Catholic orphanage opened in Melbourne; Caroline Chisholm returns to Australia to continue work helping colonists |
| 1855 | Death of aboriginal seminarian John Dirimera after return from Rome |
| 1856 | Conversion of Thomas Arnold, brother of Matthew Arnold and Tasmanian Inspector of Schools |
| 1857 | St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney established by Sisters of Charity; Sisters of the Good Samaritan founded in Sydney; John O’Shanassy becomes Premier of Victoria; St John’s College, University of Sydney, established by Act of Parliament |
| 1858 | Bishops threaten to excommunicate laymen who criticise them in the press; Convert Dr Anthony Brownless appointed Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University |
| 1859 | Queensland proclaimed a colony and James Quinn appointed first Bishop of Brisbane; Rome decides to send Irish bishops to Australia; Sr Baptist de Lacy, Rectress of St Vincent’s Hospital, returns to Ireland after controversy over the provision of Protestant bibles to Protestant patients; Fr Bleasdale founds Catholic Young Men’s Society in Melbourne |
| 1860 | Bishop Geoghegan begins Catholic schools in South Australia; Maitland riot prevents lecture on ‘The heathenism of Popery’; Mary MacKillop begins working at Penola; Mother Ursula Frayne establishes House of Mercy in Melbourne for unprotected young women |
| 1861 | Mercy Sisters under Mother Vincent Whitty arrive in Queensland |
| 1862 | Australian provincial council held in Melbourne but not canonically recognised; The first of 13 ships of Bishop Quinn’s Queensland Immigration Scheme brings Irish to Brisbane |
| 1863 | Abbotsford Convent opened in Melbourne as multipurpose charitable home; Polding tries but fails to meet bushranger Ben Hall |
| 1864 | Loyal Orange Institution reorganised in Victoria to combat Catholic influence; Death of Fr Therry, pioneer priest |
| 1865 | St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney burns down; Publication of Tenison Woods’ History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia; Publication of Columbus Fitzpatrick’s first, second and third recollections of the early days of Catholicism in NSW Arrival of Chinese priest, Fr Joseph Ah Lee, in Melbourne |
| 1866 | Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods begin the Sisters of St Joseph |
| 1867 | Foundation of St Stanislaus’ College, Bathurst |
| 1868 | Shooting of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh at Clontarf by Irishman O’Farrell leads to anti-Irish feeling, Parkes’ Kiama speech blames a Fenian conspiracy; Christian Brothers return to Melbourne; Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society founded |
| 1869 | Bishops’ pastoral letter declares white men have “too often been apostles of Satan” in dealing with aboriginals; Temporary St Mary’s Cathedral burns down again; Second Australian Provincial Council held in Melbourne (Proceedings); Australian bishops attend opening of First Vatican Council |
| 1870 | Josephite sisters report Fr Keating of Kapunda for sexual abuse of children |
| 1871 | Mary MacKillop excommunicated; Former Irish nationalist Charles Gavan Duffy becomes Premier of Victoria |
| 1872 | State aid to Church schools abolished in Victoria; MacKillop’s excommunication revoked; Marist Brothers under Br Ludovic begin teaching in Sydney |
| 1873 | Roger Vaughan appointed coadjutor bishop to Sydney |
| 1874 | Foundation of St Patrick’s College Goulburn and Mount Erin Convent Wagga; Sisters of Perpetual Adoration founded in Brisbane |
| 1875 | State Aid to church schools withdrawn in Qld; Fr Duncan McNab begins mission to indigenous in Qld; Loreto Sisters arrive in Australia and establish school at Ballarat |
| 1876 | Vaughan’s speech ‘Hidden Springs‘ attributes the campaign for secular education to a Masonic conspiracy; Aboriginal tribe settled on St Joseph’s Farm in Burragorang Valley by Fr Dillon; Decision taken to demolish Hobart’s 10-year-old cathedral as unsafe |
| 1877 | Death of Polding; Vaughan becomes Archbishop of Sydney; Bishop O’Mahony of Armidale resigns after allegations of impropriety |
| 1878 | Opening of Jesuit Xavier College, Kew; Sydney’s Hyde Park closed to public speakers after Irish-Protestant clashes |
| 1879 | Vaughan’s Joint Pastoral condemns public schools as “seedplots of future immorality, infidelity and lawlessness”; Riot in Hobart at the lecture of anti-Catholic ex-priest Charles Chiniquy |
| 1880 | Public Instruction Act (NSW) removes state aid for church schools; Ned Kelly given the last sacraments before execution; Foundation of St Ignatius’ College Riverview; Sisters of Mercy from Buenos Aires arrive in Adelaide |
| 1881 | Foundation of St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill; St Vincent de Paul Society reestablished in Sydney; Arrival in Sydney of Italian refugees from failed settlement in New Ireland |
| 1882 | Archbishop Goold shot at by deranged solicitor O’Farrell; Refugee German Ursuline nuns arrive in Armidale |
| 1883 | Death of Archbishop Vaughan; Edmund Vaughan‘s Australian Catholic Hymnal published; Australian tour of John Redmond in support of Home Rule for Ireland; Dominican nuns arrive in Adelaide and specialise in embroidery; Good Shepherd girls reformatory Oakleigh opened |
| 1884 | Patrick Francis Moran arrives in Sydney as Archbishop; Little Sisters of the Poor begin aged care in Melbourne; Architectural partnership of Sheerin & Hennessy formed; Missionaries of the Sacred Heart establish mission on Thursday Island |
| 1885 | First Plenary Council of Australasia; Moran appointed the first Australian cardinal; French Carmelite nuns arrive in Sydney |
| 1886 | Thomas Carr appointed Archbishop of Melbourne; Patrick Jennings the first Catholic premier of NSW; Publication of Dean John Kenny’s History of the Commencement and Progress of Catholicity in Australia; Riot in Lismore as Irish-American “escaped nun” Edith O’Gorman speaks to Orange Lodge |
| 1887 | Rome declares central government for Sisters of St Joseph |
| 1888 | Cardinal Moran speaks against anti-Chinese immigration legislation; ‘The Church and the Centenary‘ includes testimony of Ambrose Fitzpatrick on the earliest Catholic life in Australia; Nazareth House Ballarat opened to care for the aged and for girls |
| 1889 | St Patrick’s Seminary Manly opened; Missionaries of the Sacred Heart’s magazine Annals founded |
| 1890 | Mary MacKillop’s brother Donald McKillop appointed Superior of the Jesuit mission in the Northern Territory; J.J. Dalton of Orange elected Member for West Donegal in the House of Commons; Sisters of Our Lady of Sion take over Catholic education in Sale Sacred Heart Hospice for the dying established by Sisters of Charity in Sydney |
| 1891 | Foundation stone laid of first Melkite church in Australia; Moran’s speech on Rights and Duties of Labour supports rights of workers; Austral Light magazine founded in Melbourne; |
| 1892 | Trappist Fathers establish Beagle Bay School in the Kimberley; W.N. Bull funerals founded |
| 1893 | Sisters of Charity found St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne; First Maronite priests arrive in Sydney; publication of Banjo Paterson’s comic poem ‘A Bush Christening‘; St Patrick’s College Ballarat opened |
| 1894 | Gertrude Abbott founds St Margaret’s maternity hospital in inner Sydney; Australasian Catholic Record founded by Moran |
| 1895 | Cardinal Moran’s History of the Catholic Church in Australasia published (1003 pages); Second Australian Plenary Council |
| 1896 | Moran speaks at Bathurst in favour of Federation |
| 1897 | Patrick Vincent Dwyer appointed the first Australian-born Catholic bishop; PM Glynn persuades Federal Convention to insert reference to God in preamble to Australian Constitution; Sacred Heart Monastery, Kensington NSW opened |
| 1898 | Fr Long announces find of huge nugget in Kanowna WA |
| 1899 | Jesuit mission in Northern Territory abandoned after disastrous floods |
| 1900 | Sectarian bitterness over naming as co-respondent in divorce case of Fr Denis O’Haran, Moran’s private secretary; jury finds for O’Haran in 1901; Chaplain Fr Timoney protests against treatment of Boers; First Australasian Catholic Congress, Sydney |
The ACHS Timeline
