Please take cache and move away as you sign log. Then return and hide cache quickly ..... it gets muggled lots!
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 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.
Sisters of St Joseph
Mary MackIllop never came to the Kimberleys but her sisters continued her legacy.
In 1967, St Joseph's Catholic Primary School Kununurra (staffed by the Sisters of St Joseph) was set up to cater for the developing township and students from the outlying cattle stations. After the 1967 Referendum and the dramatic change in government policy, the growth of the school ran parallel to the thrust for self-determination by the Aboriginal People.
In 1973 St Martin's Hostel was established for the station children. The children were accommodated in caravans on the school grounds. Primary aged children were able to return from Beagle Bay and Lombadina to attend school in their own area. With the assistance of a government grant, the hostel moved to a new site and was named Moongoong Darwung (Camp on the Broken Rocks). At Moongoong Darwung the children lived in extended family groups and some of their relatives came in from the stations to act as carers.
The Sisters of St Joseph provided school leadership until 1996. The sisters now remain involved in the community in many other ways.
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 2010.