History of MacKillop College

MacKillop College was established in 1967 and its genesis can be traced to the review of the New South Wales education system undertaken by Dr Harold Wyndham in the late 1950s. When the Wyndham Scheme was inaugurated in 1962, the impact upon existing schools was significant. Among a number of changes, a major expansion in the teaching of science was to have profound implications for Catholic schools across the state. The costs involved in the expansion of subject offerings and, in particular, the requirement to provide science laboratories for the students presented serious challenges for the two existing Catholic girls schools in the area - St Mary's in Bathurst, run by the Sisters of Mercy, and St Joseph's at Perthville, managed by the Sister's of St Josephs.

In 1963, Bishop Norton appointed Father Hugh Delaney to the post of Inspector of Schools and it fell to Father Delaney to manage the implementation of the Wyndham Scheme throughout the diocese. After considering a range of options, Father Delaney approached the newly installed Bishop Thomas with a proposal to amalgamate St Mary's and St Joseph's. His plan involved the building of a new school at St Vincent's Park to be jointly staffed by the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of St Joseph. With the support of the Bishop, Father Delaney worked with Mother Paula, the Congregational Leader of the Sisters of St Joseph, and Mother Marie Therese, the Congregation Superior of the Sisters of Mercy, to bring the proposed amalgamation of the schools to reality.

In 1966, as the building of the new school in Gorman's Hill Road was under way, the Year 11 classes of the two schools combined for their lessons in preparation for the first HSC examinations which were to be held in 1967. In Term One, classes were scheduled on some days at St Joseph's and on other days at St Mary's. From Term Two the decision was made to base all the Year 11 classes at St Joseph's. By February of 1967, the new building was ready and on 26 February 1967 the first classes were held in the newly opened school with a student population of approximately 400. St Mary's in Bathurst closed while St Joseph's at Perthville continued to be run by the Sisters of St Joseph as the school's boarding facility.

The name of the new school was the Diocesan Catholic Girls High School, a name favoured by Bishop Thomas as the school was designed to serve the needs of girls throughout the diocese, especially as some smaller rural schools had been forced to close with the introduction of the Wyndham Scheme. In addition, contributions to help pay for the building of the new school had been solicited from parishes throughout the diocese. The first Principal of the school was Mother Basil Griffin, a Sister of Mercy, and her deputy was Sister Margaret Press, a Sister of St Joseph.

Before the 1960s ended plans to expand the school were implemented with the construction of a Library at the southern end of the school. This building continued to operate as a Library until 2008 when a new facility was opened nearby with the old Library being converted into an administration block. A college oval and playing fields were created soon after the school's opening and combined tennis and basketball courts were constructed in the 1980s. Over the years the school's facilities have continued to expand with refurbished Art and TAS facilities being completed in 1999 and a large gymnasium and associated classrooms being opened in 2002. Student numbers have also continued to grow, topping 600 in the early years of this century.

For the school's first ten years sisters from the two congregations staffed the school with the Principals being Mother Basil Griffin (1967-1969), Sister Margaret Press (1970-1972) and Sister Dawn (Veronica) Goodwin (1973-1975). The first lay principal was Mr John Bowie who served in the role from 1976 to 1981. Since that time the Principals have been Mr Robert Hannon-Burt (1982-1985), Mr Noel Williams (1986-1992), Mrs Gene Smith (1993-2003) and Mr Steve Todd from 2003. A major event in the school's history occurred on the school's birthday in 1995 with the renaming of the school to MacKillop College in honour of Mary MacKillop whose beatification had occurred on 19 January 1995.

In 2008 the Sisters of St Joseph decided to hand the management of St Joseph's College Perthville to the Catholic Education Office in Bathurst and from the beginning of 2009 the boarding facility became an integral part of MacKillop College. MacKillop College is now a day and boarding school for Catholic girls from across the Bathurst Diocese and beyond. It has a rich tradition that has grown from the twin Mercy and Josephite charisms. It offers students a strong academic education, enriched with an extraordinarily wide range of co-curricula offerings. It looks back with pride at over forty years of students who have benefited from the education they received at the school and who have gone on to become, in the words of the school motto, "a light to the world".