The cache is located near Mount St Canice… a nursing home but formerly the convent of Sisters of the Good Shepherd.
Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne in 1842. When she was in Penola she met Julian Tenison Woods and together they opened the first St Joseph's School in 1866.
Mary MacKillop and Julian Tenison Woods founded the Sisters of St Joseph to continue this work. Over the many following years, the number of Sisters grew as did their schools. Schools were opened as the needs arose: in country towns, mining towns, cities. The Sisters also became involved in other areas of need including setting up a refuge for women in need and orphanages for children, visiting prisons and working with the sick.
The first founding in Tasmania was 24th May 1887 at Westbury.
History ….
The only recorded visit of Mary MacKillop in Tasmania was when she spent just a few hours in Hobart on October 18, 1897.
Her sister Lexie belonged to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.
Lexie was never a member of the community here in Hobart, but Mary clearly had a close association with the other congregation of religious sisters.
On 18 October 1897, when Mary MacKillop was travelling between Australia and New Zealand, the ship called into Hobart for a very short stop-over, and Mary came down to St Canice to spend her time with the Sisters there.
The ship berthed in Hobart at 11am and Mary travelled to Sandy Bay by taxi, at a cost of 4/-. She chose a cheaper form of transport to return to the ship, at 7pm, paying just 1/- on the tram.”
Mary MacKillop's famous saying was "Never see a need without doing something about it"
Well..... there was a need, a geochache in her honour, and something has been done about it!
This is one of many caches placed in significant locations of her story.
Mary died on August 8th, 1909.
She was declared Australia’s first Saint in 2012.
Thank you to red tag for monitoring the cache.