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Polding House

​John Bede Polding was born in 1794 in Liverpool, England. In 1811 he joined the Benedictine monastery and was ordained a priest in 1819. In 1834 he was consecrated a bishop and was sent to Sydney to become the first Catholic Bishop of Australia. He lived and worked in Australia for the next 42 years, until his death in 1877. In 1857 Polding founded the Order of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan Sisters worked in Kingaroy, providing primary and secondary education at Saint Mary's from 1934 until 2002.

Bishop Polding felt great empathy with first nations people, the convicts and women who led very difficult lives in Australia during the middle years of the nineteenth century. He travelled all over the eastern states and in 1842 rode through the South Burnett.

The Polding House colour is red.

​​Quinn House

Bishop James Quinn arrived in Brisbane in 1861 at the first bishop of Queensland. Quinn was born in Ireland and had studied at universities in Dublin and Rome. He saw Christian education as the right of every person and he also through that the Government should give equal funding to church and state education systems. He established more than thirty educational institutions during his time in Queensland.

Between 1862 and 1865 Quinn encouraged Irish immigration via "Queensland Immigration Society". Over 3,000 people emerged from Ireland to Queensland. These people settled in the Logan, Lockyer, Darling Downs and South Burnett areas. Quinn spent many week riding around these communities, often covering more than 1,000 kilometres on horse back during a round of visits.

The Quinn House colour is green.

​Rush House

Francis Rush was born in Townsville in 1916. He became Bishop of Rockhampton in 1960 and in 1973 became Archbishop of Brisbane. During the sixteen years of his Episcopal leadership, Archbishop Rush saw the Brisbane Archdiocese grow by fifty percent to 420,000 Catholics. Sixteen new parishes were set up during the 1970's and 1980's. To help cater fro the growing numbers, Archbishop Rush divided the archdiocese into nine deaneries.

As he sought to implement the changes initiated by Vatican II, Archbishop Rush empowered and guided his people into a new era of growth and co-operation. He approached governments on major issues​ including the needs of First Nations people and the provision of affordable housing. As well as these very formal tasks, Archbishop Rush remained very interested in the lives of all people.

The Rush House colour is blue.

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