The cache is located near the St Joseph’s Centre for Reflective Living, appropriately on MacKillop Drive!
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.
History ….
The land on which St Joseph's Centre is located was originally part of the property belonging to Alexander MacDougall. Alexander had received a share of the extensive Macarthur holdings in the district of Parramatta, when the government of the day realised that such large extensive grants as Macarthur had received were not feasible, given the size of the increased population. The property then passed to Susanna Matilda Ward who was granted part of the five hundred acres in the re-apportioning of Macarthur's Seven Hills farm. Susanna's land was situated on Windsor Road south of Barina Downs.
In 1866 Mother Mary MacKillop founded the Sisters of St Joseph in Penola, South Australia. Central to her vision was service to the people of outback Australia, the poor and the marginalised wherever they may be. The Sisters worked in spirituality, education, health and culture. The order grew rapidly and sisters were soon ministering throughout Australia. Mary moved to North Sydney in 1884 and established the Novitiate there (a place for training of sisters). North Sydney was established as the site of the Mother Housein 1889..
In 1952 Mother Leone Ryan, then Superior General of the Sisters of St Joseph, purchased the property on which the Centre now stands. Her purpose was to move the crowded Novitiate from the Mother House of the Sisters at Mount Street, North Sydney to this 47 hectare (116 acre) property.
Building commenced soon after the purchase was made and the novitiate opened on the 14th April, 1956. A small community moved in immediately and the first novices were settled in their new novitiate by 13th June of the same year.
In the early years the novitiate was self-sufficient, providing its own milk, bread and vegetables. It also kept a piggery, turkeys, fowls and ducks. Over the years this aspect of life diminished as the number of novices decreased.
The 1977 there was a need for a Spirituality Centre to assist in the on-going renewal of the Sisters. As a result part of the Novitiate was re-furbished and the first "Emmaus" Programme commenced in 1978. By 1988 the sisters had sold a significant portion of the land, retaining 18 hectares. The memory of the early Sisters lives on in the surrounding district as the Baulkham Hills Shire Council has named many streets after some of these Sisters – MacKillop Drive, Leone Place and Delaney Crescent.
In August 1995 the Novitiate moved from the Baulkham Hills site to Quakers Hill. At this time thought was being given to the possibilities of further developing the Novitiate buildings on Baulkham Hills site. By the later 1990s plans were drawn and the refurbishment of the Novitiate buildings began. The Centre for Reflective Living was born. This new focus in ministry continues today.
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Mary MacKilop'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.