The cache is located near St John’s School Richmond, TAS
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.
The first founding in Tasmania was 24th May 1887 at Westbury.
History of St John’s School
St John's (The Evangelist) Catholic School was established in the "old" school house adjacent to the Church in 1843.
Fr Thomas Butler, who was in charge of the Richmond Parish at the time, felt there should be a school for Catholic children and set about setting up a school for the children to be "brought up in the faith". Father Butler enagaged the services of Michael O'Keefe to establish and run the school from the first school day in 1843. The school started off with twenty pupils and by 1846 the numbers had increased to thirty.
In 1866 the Presentation Sisters arrived in Tasmania and took up residence at "Woodburn", in Richmond, until St Mary's Convent was completed in Harrington Streeet, Hobart. For eighteen months they workied in the school and parish and were sadly missed when their time came to an end.
In 1888 the Sisters of St. Joseph arrived and remained at school for almost 100 years, from 1888 until 1984, facilitating a Catholic education for countless generations of students.
The school moved to its present location, but still within the parish and school grounds, in 1925
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.
Thank you to red tag who will look after the cache.
The parish priest has given permission for the hide.