| 60,000BC | Years of Aboriginal residence. |
| 1606 | Quiros searches for Terra Australis and names part of Vanuatu ‘La Austrialia del Espiritu Santo’ |
| 1641 | Catholic mission established in Timor |
| 1681 | Evangelisation Congregation in Rome appoints Fr Vittorio Riccio of Manila Prefect Apostolic of Terra Australis |
| 1769 | Fr Villefeix says first mass in New Zealand |
| 1772 | French sailor Massicot buried on Dirk Hartog Island, WA |
| 1787 | Fr Thomas Walshe asks Lord Sydney to be allowed to go to Botany Bay with First Fleet, no known reply |
| 1788 | Jan 23 First Fleet enters Sydney Cove; Jan 25 La Perouse enters Botany Bay; Abbé Mongez, his chaplain, celebrates the first masses within Australian territory; death and burial of Fr Receveur; 3 Feb 1788 First Anglican service |
| 1792 | Catholic settlers at Parramatta petition Governor Phillip for a chaplain but without result; Pierson’s Point, Derwent River, named after Ambroise Pierson, chaplain and astronomer on l’Espérance; Abbé Louis Ventenat records Tasmanian native customs |
| 1793 | Fr José de Mesa, chaplain of Malaspina’s expedition, helped to recover from illness by Anglican chaplain Richard Johnson “with a kindness, spirit of unity and a simplicity that were truly of the Gospel” |
| 1795 | First recorded celebration of St Patrick’s Day |
| 1798 | Rebellion in Ireland leads to transportation of many who will become leaders of the Church in NSW |
| 1800 | Fr James Harold & Fr James Dixon arrive as convicts |
| 1801 | Third convict priest, Fr Peter O’Neil, arrives and is sent to Norfolk Island |
| 1803 | Governor King proclaims toleration of Catholics; Dixon says first public Mass and wedding, attends execution |
| 1804 | Castle Hill rebellion of Irish convicts; Dixon’s permit withdrawn but appointed by Rome as ‘Prefect Apostolic of New Holland‘ |
| 1805 | Willliam Wilberforce fears the youth of the colony will be educated in Popery |
| 1807 | French Royalist exile Huon de Kerilleau employed to tutor Macarthurs’ sons |
| 1809 | Fr Dixon returns to Ireland |
| 1810 | Fr Harold departs, leaving Australia without priests; “Louis Peter, a native of India and Roman Catholic” a witness in a legal case |
| 1812 | Ex-convict Sydney businessman Michael Hayes writes to his brother in Rome asking for priests |
| 1814 | Angelo le Rosse accompanied to the gallows by a lay Catholic monitor |
| 1816 | Layman James Dempsey reads prayers at executions |
| 1817 | Fr Jeremiah O’Flynn arrives – without government credentials |
| 1818 | O’Flynn arrested and deported, worship continues at the house of James Dempsey; Catherine Fitzpatrick trains choir |
| 1819 | Visitors on the French ship Uranie communicate with Sydney Catholics; Australia included in the Vicariate Apostolic of Cape of Good Hope, Madagascar, Mauritius and New Holland |
| 1820 | Fr Philip Conolly and Fr John Therry arrive as official chaplains; Macquarie allows them to marry Catholics only; meeting held in Sydney to raise money for a chapel (original report) |
| 1821 | Conolly moves to Van Diemen’s Land, Therry left in charge in NSW; First Catholic school at Parramatta; Governor Macquarie lays foundation stone for St Mary’s Church, on site of later cathedral (original report; its planning); Catholics in NSW reached around 9000, almost all poor Irish |
| 1822 | Chandeliers and lamps presented for the church; convict Andrew Higgins assigned to teach school in Kent St; fund launched to build temporary chapel at Parramatta; appeal launched to build chapel in Hobart |
| 1823 | Presbyterians advised to imitate Catholics if they want government subsidy; St Virgil’s chapel Hobart built |
| 1824 | Governor Brisbane attributes “every murder or diabolical crime” in the colony to Irish Catholics; Fr Samuel Coote ministers in Van Diemen’s Land but conflicts with Fr Conolly; Fr Conolly hears last confession of cannibal convict Alexander Pearce |
| 1825 | Thomas Byrne master of the Chapel School, Hyde Park |
| 1826 | Fr Daniel Power arrives as chaplain; Therry moves to Parramatta; Therry defends marrying a Catholic and Protestant; Governor Darling suspends Therry’s appointment and salary |
| 1827 | Benevolent Asylum worker harassed for assisting an inmate to convert to Catholicism … more; Fr Power baptises aboriginal man on scaffold |
| 1828 | First census of NSW shows 69% of the white population Protestant and 30% Catholic |
| 1829 | WA settlement begins; Fr Power attends four executions on one day; Roger Therry arrives as commissioner of the court of requests |
| 1830 | Catholic Emancipation Act promulgated for NSW (subsequent debates); death of Fr Power |
| 1831 | Fr CV Dowling OP arrives as chaplain |
| 1832 | Fr John McEncroe arrives, and Attorney-General John Plunkett; Consecration of first Catholic church, St Joseph’s Chapel, Hyde Park |
| 1833 | Census shows 17,200 Catholics of a total white population of 61,000; Dr WB Ullathorne arrives in Sydney as Vicar-General; NSW Legislative Council makes grants for the appointment of four new chaplains, the completion of three unfinished churches, and £800 a year for schools and schoolteachers; Rev Fulton‘s pamphlet Reasons why Protestants Think the Worship of the Church of Rome an Idolatrous Worship published in Sydney |
| 1834 | John Bede Polding created bishop and appointed vicar-apostolic of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land |
| 1835 | Polding arrives in Sydney as bishop; first resident clergy appointed to districts |
| 1836 | Polding applies for more government support; Governor Bourke’s Church Act provides government funds for all major churches; John Baptist Pompallier consecrated bishop for missions in Oceania; South Australia first settlers; Financing secured for Catholic orphanage; foundation of St Patrick’s Church, Parramatta; Fr Dowling becomes first priest in the Hunter River district; Pioneer farmer James Ruse received into Catholic Church; first ordination in Australia, of Fr Bede Sumner; Public meeting of Hobart Catholics condemns Fr Conolly for suing Polding |
| 1837 | Ullathorne’s pamphlet The Catholic Mission in Australasia published in London and attracts Catholic support for mission; St Patrick’s Church, Parramatta, consecrated; St Bede’s Church, Appin designed by Therry; St John’s Church, Richmond, Tas, completed |
| 1838 | St Mary’s Seminary opened at Bishop’s House, with ex-Jesuit Fr Lovat president; Fr Goold osa, Fr John Brady, Caroline Chisholm, Sisters of Charity and the “Men of ’38” Irish priests arrive in Sydney; NSW Attorney-General John Plunkett achieves the conviction of seven perpetrators of the Myall Creek Massacre; Ullathorne’s pamphlet The Horrors of Transportation; first priests appointed at Bathurst; Fr Therry sent to Hobart |
| 1839 | First Catholic newspaper Australasian Chronicle founded; first mass in Melbourne |
| 1840 | End of Transportation to NSW; authorities alarmed by an Irish demonstration at St Patrick’s, Church Hill; Sydney Herald fears flood of Irish Catholic immigrants; 58 French Canadian exiles transported to Sydney |
The ACHS Timeline
