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Home  Inner BrisbaneMercy Heritage Centre |
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| When did the Sisters of Mercy arrive in Brisbane? Who were the founding Sisters? |  |
10th May 1861 at 10pm. Mother Vincent Whitty, Sister Catherine Morgan, Novice Sisters Benedict McDermott and Cecilia McAuliffe, and Postulants Jane Townsend and Emily Conlan were the founding six.
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| Why did the Sisters of Mercy come to Brisbane? | |
As a result of Queensland’s separation from NSW in 1859, the Diocese of Brisbane became separate from the Diocese of Sydney, and James Quinn was appointed its Bishop. Quinn, keen to secure the foundations of a Catholic education system in Queensland, sought the aid of the Sisters of Mercy.
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| Was the wall on Ann Street frontage of All Hallows’ built by convicts? | |
NO – this is a common urban myth. Few convicts were sent to the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement after 1839, and the area was opened up for free settlers in 1842. Construction of the wall did not begin until 1865.
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| When was the wall built? | |
All Hallows’ originally stood atop Duncan’s Hill, which was subject to a number of cuts before taking its present form. Ann Street was first cut down in 1865 (by 15ft), and again in 1876 and 1886 – the 1876 cut required the rebuilding and extension of the original wall. A final cut in 1927 led to a number of changes to the wall, lodge and gateway, including an extension of the wall and the reconstruction of the gateway at the lower street level.
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| When did the Sisters move to the site now known as All Hallows’ Convent? | |
The Sisters lived in rented cottages before purchasing the home of Dr George Fullerton, “Adderton”, and moving in on the 1st November 1863 – All Hallows’ Day. This was the first permanent home of the Sisters of Mercy in Queensland, and it was renamed Convent of Our Lady of Mercy, All Hallows’ by Mother Vincent Whitty. All Hallows’ became the Mother House of the Mercy Congregation and the base for a broad network of health, educational and social welfare programs.
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| Was “Adderton” demolished to make way for further developments on the site? | |
No – the original structure was incorporated into later extensions to the structure (1891, 1913, and 1919). “Adderton” remains as one of the oldest surviving buildings in Queensland, with many original features still evident.
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| Where did the name “Adderton” come from? | |
Presumably Dr Fullerton named his property after his wife, Julia Adderton Moffat.
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| “Adderton” has, in the past, been reported as being built by Andrew Petrie and/ or John Petrie. Who built it? | |
Andrew Petrie was a building contractor responsible for the design of many local buildings until the influx of architects in the 1860s. Andrew contracted sandy blight and went blind after an exploratory excursion to the Darling Downs in 1848. His son John Petrie, Brisbane’s first mayor, was Andrew’s business partner from 1843. John is more likely to have been involved in the construction and design of “Adderton”. However, despite the loss of his sight, Andrew Petrie continued to supervise the construction of many of Brisbane’s colonial buildings. In short, it is possible, indeed probable, that both men played a part in the building of “Adderton”.
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| What does “AMDG” stand for? | |
Displayed on the gate and Convent, “AMDG” is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase “Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam” meaning “To the Greater Glory of God”. The letters were written on the daily pages of schoolbooks in the early days.
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| Are there any ghost stories associated with All Hallows’? | |
There are plenty of rumours, probably linked to the active imaginations of some of the students, including: suicides from the top of McAuley Hall and from the Wall itself; a lit candle in one of the upper storey windows in the Main Building late at night; secret tunnels throughout the grounds; and other tales of murder and death! There is no evidence to support these theories.
However, the laundry (built 1897) and yard (known as the “bleach”) was the site of the earliest cemetery of the Sisters of Mercy, where the first six sisters were buried and later reinterred in Nudgee Cemetery. It is believed that the yard was formerly in a different location closer to St Gertrude’s grounds, and one source indicated that McAuley Hall now stands on the site of the original “bleach”.
We also have over 1100 religious relics within the collection of the Mercy Heritage Centre. Relics are basically the bones of saints – defined in more detail as the body, a part of the body, or some personal memorial of a saint, martyr, or other sacred persons, preserved as worthy of veneration.
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