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Brothers in Australia
First Coming to Australia
Australian Provinces
During Blessed Edmund Rice's lifetime Christian Brothers came to Australia, to Sydney, in 1843.
Edmund's successor as Superior General, Brother Michael Paul Riordan, at the request of Bishop John Bede Polding, sent Brothers Stephen Carroll (Superior, 29), Peter Scannell (28) and Francis Larkin (26) to begin the mission.
At this time Sydney boasted a non-Indigenous population of 35,000 about half of whom were former convicts. Transportation of
convicts to New South Wales ended in 1840. New South Wales then comprised the present-day States of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Territory. South Australia
became a separate State in 1836.
These three Brothers, for their first six months, were accommodated in a room on the upper floor of Benedictine Bishop Polding's
house which commanded a fine view of Woolloomooloo Bay. Later they moved to 86 Castlereagh Street which was a convenient situation for them to be able to run three of the six Catholic schools in
existence in Sydney :-
one was in Kent Street near The Rocks; a second was in Macquarie Street opposite Sydney Hospital; a third was in Abercrombie Place just off Parramatta Road near what is now called Broadway. Each Brother had a class of over 100 boys, aged between seven and fourteen. While the work of the Brothers drew favourable comment in the press, as the years passed it seemed the Benedictine's expected the Brothers to separate from their Superior General in Ireland, and come under Benedictine jurisdiction. The Brothers were unwilling to make this separation and returned to Ireland in March 1847.
Returning to Australia
Fortunately, the Christian Brothers, under
Brother Patrick Ambrose Treacy, came back to Australia, to Melbourne in 1868, the year of
cessation of transportation of convicts to Australia. They were received by the Catholic population with great fanfare, public speeches and much newspaper comment. On their arrival they
had ten shillings, but Archbishop Goold of Melbourne could not help them financially in the way he had promised. He told them "I
haven't a rap. Throw yourself on the people and I will recommend your cause to them!". They commenced their first school in 1869
in Fitzroy. As a young lad, Patrick Treacy was taught in Thurles, Ireland, by Brother Francis Larkin, one of the first pioneers to Sydney.
The Christian Brothers had a subsequent phenomenal growth in Australia, even if some of the early Irish Brothers firmly believed
that these Australians would never make it as Christian Brothers! The extraordinary growth came from the resilience of the Irish Brothers to adapt to the Australian conditions, their perspicacity,
their deep religious faith, their identification with and genuine friendship for, the people, and their great love of sport which won over the sport-loving Australian youth. To follow the early
expansion of the Brothers around Australia is virtually to follow the cessation of government assistance to denominational schools.
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