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.
Port Macquarie
Thanks pprass for some research …
It appears that the closest connection to Port Macquarie is that the Sisters of St Joseph of Perthville set up a convent and school in Lochinvar NSW in 1883 which is 200 kms SW of Port Macquarie, just west of Maitland. A convent was not established in Port Macquarie until 1913. So I am thinking that the MacKillop naming in Port Macquarie is in honour of the Lochinvar establishment in 1883 – there is even a road across the college named Lochinvar Pl which is where a large Catholic Aged Care centre owned by the St Agnes church is located.
Mary MacKillop herself withdrew from Perthville with most of the sisters in the 1870's because of a “Bishop Matthew Quinn, the Bishop of Bathurst wanted to control the activity of Sisters in his diocese” and it was Sister Hyacinth Quinlan who remained to later assist in the founding of the Lochinvar convent.
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.
Thankyou to pprass who placed the cache to be part of the Mary MacKillop series and will do maintenance.