From the cache location you will see St Declan’s Church and School, Penshurst across the road.
Beware of School Muggles and Bus Muggles on a very busy corner… hence the high rating! Cover carefully with local camo when replacing the cache.
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.
St Declan’s School…
In 1900 Penshurst was an outlying bushland district on the new Illawarra railway. The nearest parish priest, Father J. O'Driscoll, lived at Kogarah. Thirty seven Catholic families petitioned Cardinal Moran for a Catholic school, and in 1907 Father O'Driscoll built St Declan's Church / school for them on the present site. He arranged for the Sisters of Charity to come there each day from their convent in Hurstville. At first a horse and carriage were hired, but later they travelled by train. The school began in 1907 with two Sisters of Charity. The original enrolment is not known, but by 1908 there were 71 pupils.
An important change occurred in 1914 when the Sisters of Charity agreed to hand over management of the school to the Sisters of St Joseph. So in 1914 two Sisters of St Joseph travelled from their convent in Arncliffe to teach 76 pupils. The school developed as a primary school with classes from kindergarten to sixth class. The older boys above Third class, however, would attend the Marist' Brothers School at Kogarah.
As the district continued to grow, Penshurst in 1916 became a separate parish, and a convent was built there for the Sisters. By 1939 St Declan's had over 300 pupils and the new parish priest, Father O'Kelly, arranged for a new school building of nine classrooms. By 1950 classes had extended to the Intermediate (secondary) for girls and numbers had grown to about 500. Two more classrooms were added in 1956. Pressures were eased to some extent when new parishes and parish schools were formed in Beverly Hills, Peakhurst and Oatley. A Marist Brothers' School for boys from Third Class to Intermediate also began at Penshurst in 1953.
During the 1960's Archdiocesan authorities needed to rationalise the provision of Catholic Schools, and so by 1968 secondary classes were ended at St Declan's. This rationalisation was taken further in 1993 when Marist Brothers' Penshurst ended primary classes and St Declan's became a fully co-educational primary school with classes from kindergarten to year six. Another change was that in 1986 the Sisters of St Joseph ended thier seventy year leadership of the school.
Mary MacKillop…
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.