Download The Society of Jesus, founded by a one

The Society of Jesus, founded by a one-time Spanish soldier, St Ignatius Loyola, first came to Australia in
1848.
A group of Austrian citizens led by Franz Weikert, formed a plan leave the
European turbulence of the time and seek a better and more peaceful life in
Australia. They chartered a ship and set sail from Hamburg, Germany in August of
that year to settle in South Australia. On board, as chaplains, were two Jesuit
priests. Shortly after arrival one of them had to return because of ill health. The
other, Fr Aloysius Kranewitter SJ, moved north of Adelaide some ninety miles to a
district called Sevenhill, about four miles from the town of Clare. Here a large
church was built with stone quarried from the site. A fine school, St Aloysius'
College, was also constructed. A vineyard was planted on the site in 1851, with
some of these vines still bearing wine producing grapes more than 160 years later. The Austrian Fathers
later opened a mission for Aborigines on the Daly River which, after a heroic struggle, was finally
abandoned ... but that is another story.
Some sixteen years after the arrival of the Austrian Fathers, the College of St Patrick adjoining the
Cathedral in Melbourne was in difficulty and facing closure. The Austrian Fathers with their language
handicap, their shortage of manpower and their vast missionary activity in South Australia, were unable to
help. The Archbishop, Dr Goold, turned to the Irish Province of the Society of Jesus for assistance and,
in 1865, two priests were sent to take charge of the College, one of whom was Fr William Kelly SJ. In due
time, more men arrived and in the short space of ten years the Irish Jesuits achieved spectacular progress.
The fine churches of Richmond and Hawthorn were built and Xavier College, Kew, was opened. It was
to this successful group that an appeal came from the Archbishop of Sydney for assistance.
The first Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Polding OSB, was a member of the Order of St Benedict and was
keen to organise the Sydney Catholic community along Benedictine lines. To cater for the education of
Catholic boys he established Lyndhurst College in Glebe, then a suburb west of Sydney. From the outset
there were difficulties obtaining suitable staff from the English Province of the Order, and there was the
constant worry of finance. Bitter, acrimonious debate filled the press in those days, as in later years, about
the use of government money for the support of Catholic schools. Sir Henry Parkes was adamant that
education should be "free, secular and compulsory". Lyndhurst College struggled for some years and was
finally forced to close its doors in 1877.
Dr Roger Bede Vaughan, also a Benedictine, who succeeded Dr Polding as Archbishop, found himself
without a college for boys in the growing Catholic community, and he was constantly petitioned to find a
solution to the problem.
Fr Joseph Dalton SJ, who was sent to Sydney by the Superior, Fr Cahill SJ in answer to an urgent appeal
from His Grace, recalls his first meeting with the Archbishop. Dr Vaughan informed him that he had had
a friendly warning from his brother, then Bishop of Salford in England, that the day he invited the Jesuits
into his archdiocese he could be cutting a rod with which to scourge himself. However in the
circumstances, he was forced to take a risk and jokingly remarked to Fr Dalton: "You don't look like a
person that would scourge me too severely". Towards the end of 1878 Fr Dalton returned to Sydney with
Fr Kennedy SJ to seek out a site, first for a city day school and later, if possible, a site for a boarding
school. After prolonged discussion and searching, a property known as St Kilda House, on the corner of
Cathedral and Palmer Streets in Wooloomooloo, was rented at £260 per annum. Built in 1844, it was a
fine Georgian-style mansion with fifteen rooms. St Kilda House was blessed by the Archbishop and its first
pupils admitted on 3 February, 1879. Some forty-five pupils were enrolled on the first day and by the end
of that year enrolment had grown to one hundred and fifteen boys.
Before long it was obvious that the site and its surroundings were far from
ideal for a College. The pupils had transport difficulties and some had long
walks to the College. In addition, the children of the area resented the
intrusion of "college boys" into their district. In September 1883, the College
moved up the city to a property known as Auburn Villa in Darlinghurst. It had
been purchased from the Iredale family for £6,975 and classes were resumed
there on 17 September. Though the house had only eleven rooms, the area
offered considerable advantages. Before long, a new wing was built at a cost
of £5,000. The entire building was later demolished to make way for St
Margaret's Maternity Hospital. St Kilda House was obviously accepted in a
hurry to meet an urgent need and Fr Dalton had little choice. The Bourke Street site, however, had
greater scope and potential. The name of the College was formalised to St Aloysius’ College (the Patron
Saint of Youth) upon the move to Darlinghurst. Numbers fluctuated considerably towards the end of the
century. In their letters to the Jesuit Superior, Rectors constantly pleaded for more staff, telling of their
constant financial struggle to exist.
Across Sydney Harbour, on the North Shore, the Society of Jesus had taken charge of the parish of St
Mary's, North Sydney, which at that time, in 1878, extended north to the Hawkesbury River. A small,
stone church built in 1863 by Congregationalists, Wesleyans and Anglicans had fallen into disuse through
lack of a congregation. This church was purchased by the Jesuits in 1880 as an outlying church to serve
the district of Kirribilli and Milsons Point. But the few priests at North Sydney were finding it increasingly
difficult to attend to their huge parish. His Eminence, Cardinal Moran, then Archbishop of Sydney, kept
urging the Jesuits to move their College from Bourke Street to a site near the little church and thus give
regular service to the Catholics of the area.
In 1902, a property owned by Dr Cox, adjoining the little church was rented for £225 and a few years
later bought for £4,500. The area bounded by Jeffrey Street, Clapham Rise (now known as Upper Pitt
Street) and Campbell Street (now known as Kirribilli Avenue) was small - about three quarters of an acre.
The building with its crenellated tower and lace iron balconies was set in picturesque surroundings and
commanded an unimpeded view of the Harbour to east and west. Here on the second day of February,
1903, the third stage of the College's history was begun. Even though the number of pupils on the
opening day was less than fifty, this increased before long, and again additional accommodation became a
pressing need. A wooden building was hastily erected on the spot where the Senior School now stands.
This wooden building served as classrooms and a study hall until it was replaced in 1907-1908 by a fine
three-storeyed brick building later known as the Junior School. As the Community increased, additional
rooms became necessary and in 1913-1914 a new wing was constructed on the eastern side of the original
residence. Then in 1916 an attractive property known as Wyalla, opposite the College in Upper Pitt Street,
came on the market. Money again was a problem but it was eventually borrowed and Wyalla became the
location of the Senior School.
In the early 1920s, a property off Sailors Bay Road, Northbridge, stretching down to Middle Harbour,
was purchased as a site for badly needed playing fields. A good deal of excavating and levelling would
have had to be carried out including a retaining wall built on the Harbour side before it could be used.
The techniques and machinery which were devised during the Second World War had not been thought
of then. So the property remained undeveloped. It was an ambitious project, and had it materialised,
would today be a very valuable asset. It was finally sold in 1939 and provided finance for the purchase of
some market gardens in Tyneside Avenue, East Willoughby, which forms the present St Aloysius’ College
War Memorial Oval, named to honour those Old Boys of the College who lost their lives in defence of
their nation in WWI.
A new entrance to the College was built in 1937, and in 1939 a generous benefactor of the College,
Mrs Angela Hepburn (SAC past parent), provided the necessary money to remodel the little church. The
entrance was changed from south to north, a small porch was built, a sanctuary and two sacristies added.
To the regret of everyone concerned the Old Chapel was demolished in 1980 to make way for the
construction of the main College building.
The war years brought a drop in numbers, piles of sand bags to prevent blast from anticipated Japanese
bombs and strong, wooden fortification to prevent roofs collapsing.
In 1954, new science laboratories and some offices were added to Wyalla. The
number of pupils however, after the war, increased more rapidly than the
development of accommodation. By the late fifties it was clear that a major
decision on the College's future was no longer avoidable. There appeared to be
only three available options in this decision.
One was to dose down the College gradually. For all those who had been
connected with St. Aloysius' and had worked hard for its success, this would
have been a most unpopular choice. However, had it proved to be the only
possible one, the machinery was ready to implement it. The second option was
to seek another suitable site in the vicinity, if such were available, and to make a fresh start.
In fact, no site, comparable with the present one, was available. Part of the Jesuit-owned property in
Merrivale Road, Pymble, was suggested as a possible location, if this could be procured. The financial
commitment involved in such a move was more than the College could carry. A very attractive invitation
came from Archbishop Eris O'Brien (SAC 1913) to move the College to Canberra where some twenty
acres and substantial financial assistance were available. After much debate and discussion, and indeed
with no small reluctance, this kind offer was turned down. The third possible option was to stay at
Milsons Point and re-develop the site. The representative of the Jesuit General, The Very Rev Fr John
McMahon SJ, who was then visiting the country, and the Australian Provincial, Fr Jeremiah Hogan SJ,
favoured this third option as being in the best interests of the Catholic community and of the College
itself.
Accordingly, with the help of engineer Mr G J Dusseldorp (SAC past parent), the co-operation of the
Commonwealth Bank and the support of Fr Hogan, the College began, in 1961, the task of rebuilding.
The limitations of the site and the fact that existing buildings could not be demolished beforehand,
restricted Fr John Casey SJ, the College Rector, in his plan and the architect, Mr Robert Metcalfe, in his
design. In approximately ten years, with the enthusiastic support of parents and Old Boys, four stages of
the building were completed.
To celebrate its one hundredth birthday, the College embarked on the fifth and final stage. In 1981 Stage
five (Administration, Entrance gates, Canteen, Library, Study room, Community rooms, Classrooms) was
opened.
A real dilemma faced the College despite the completion of Stage 5. There literally was not enough room
to house the College enrolment. For some years (assisted by the proposal of building the Harbour
Tunnel) investigations were carried out to see if it was possible to once again move. In 1991 a conclusion
was reached in the decision to purchase the recently closed Milsons Point Primary School and develop a
Junior School Campus. Single mindedly, a committee developed from the fledgling St Aloysius' College
Foundation set out to buy the property for the College. In 1992 the contract for the development of the
site was awarded to Civil and Civic and the construction of the Junior School Campus in Burton Street,
Milsons Point commenced. In 1993, construction was completed and the building was blessed and
opened as the new home of the College Junior School.
In 1995 to free up space for the use of the College, the Jesuit Community moved from the main building
to a newly renovated community house at 38 Jeffrey Street, Kirribilli. The former Jesuit Community
residence on the top two floors of the main College building were renovated to accommodate Year 12
while renovations for a new Senior School on the Wyalla site took place. At the commencement of 1997,
the Senior School, accommodating Years 11 and 12, was opened and blessed by the Governor-General of
Australia, Sir William Deane AC KBE QC, the Provincial of the Society of Jesus, Fr Daven Day SJ and
the Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney, The Right Reverend David Cremin DD.
After its Hebrew-like wanderings, St Aloysius' College has come to rest facing Sydney's towering skyline,
in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.