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Strathfield
Mount Saint Mary Campus
The Christian Brothers came to Strathfield in 1908, having purchased the building and property of Mount Royal, at the end of Albert Road. The original name has been given to the reserve at the entrance gates. The house, with its imposing tower, was built in 1887 for John Hinchcliff, a woolbroker, who occupied it for two years. Other tenants before the Christian Brothers included Sir George Reid, who became Australian Prime Minister (1904-5).
It was used by the Brothers for their novitiate and teacher training, and as a centre of administration for Australia and New Zealand. Additions were made at this time: the north wing and small Gothic chapel. The present University students’ dining room was originally the ballroom. Ten years later, two adjoining properties were acquired on either side of Albert Road, one being the site of the car park and the other being the University administration and offices.
The Barron Memorial Chapel was built in 1925 and the lecture rooms were built in 1930. Saint Patrick’s College was opened in 1928 to serve as a teaching practice school for student Brothers. Mount Saint Mary was a teachers’ college for Christian Brothers throughout Australia for over 50 years.
As centres in other states were opened for the education of Brothers and the numbers entering dropped, lay students were first admitted in 1973. They were expected to share the ideals of Christian Brothers, who saw teaching as a vocation wherein there was a genuine desire to promote the welfare of youth in the widest sense. The program was for middle-school teaching (years 5-8) when young people are entering adolescence, a critical period of life.
Proposals were made to the Higher Education Board to upgrade the three-year Diploma of Education into a four-year Bachelor of Education degree, in association with Polding College (Glebe Point and Castle Hill). Approval was given and these courses began in 1982. With the intake of 65 students in 1982 came the first females (24) to attend Mount Saint Mary.
At the same time the Federal Government indicated that if funding was to continue, Catholic Teachers Colleges in Sydney needed to amalgamate by 1982. This brought together Good Samaritan Teachers’ College (Glebe Point), Catholic College of Education (Castle Hill), Mount Saint Mary College of Education (Strathfield) and Catholic Teachers College (North Sydney) to form the Catholic College of Education.
The Archbishop of Sydney, Bishops and Major Superiors of the sponsoring Orders (Sisters of the Good Samaritan, De La Salle Brothers, Christian Brothers, Marist Brothers and Sisters of Saint Joseph) had jointly established an educational institution of considerable magnitude, and brought about a body of religious and lay people to govern, administer and teach at Strathfield, North Sydney and Castle Hill.
In 1991 the Catholic College of Education Sydney was amalgamated with teaching colleges in Queensland, the ACT and Victoria to form ACU National, which now has a student population of more than 10,500.
