1930s

1930: On 6 March 1930, The Most Reverend James Byrne, Bishop of the Diocese of Toowoomba, wrote a very persuasive letter to Reverend Mother Columba Forde, Superior of the Ursulines in Armidale, describing a beautiful home in the suburb of Newtown which he believed to be an ideal site for the nuns to open a boarding and day school in Toowoomba. The home he described in such glowing terms was Kerrielaw a property that the Hogarth family had recently put up for sale. Reverend Mother accepted Bishop Byrne's proposal and in late March 1930 negotiations were completed with the Ursulines to move into Kerrielaw.

Kerrielaw (Subdivisions 13-16 of Portion 81) on the corner of Rome, Warra and Taylor Streets was purchased for €2000. The nuns paid a deposit of €1000 with the balance to be paid in 12 months at 7%. Five Ursuline nuns arrived in Toowoomba from Armidale in November 1930 and two arrived in December from Duporth, an Ursuline school at Oxley, to prepare for the first intake of students in 1931. The Toowoomba school was the sixth Australian Ursuline branch established from the head house in Armidale and the seventh Ursuline community in Australia.

1931: The Toowoomba school opened on 2 February 1931, and was blessed and officially opened on Sunday 8 February 1931 by the most Reverend James Byrne. It was an important occasion for Bishop Byrne as the service marked his first opening ceremony of a Catholic building.

According to the College Admission Registers, at the time of the Official Opening St Ursula’s College had an enrollment of four secondary students (three of whom were boarders) and fourteen primary school pupils.  However, on page 47 of Sister Mary O'Sullivan's book "From Garda to Garden City" it states: ‘School had opened on 2^nd February, 1931, with a roll call of seventeen pupils. On this day, there were three boarders…’ Sister Mary Angela Dalton osu was the Superior and Principal of the College. By the end of February the roll call had increased to twenty and by the end of the 1931 school year there were twelve boarders and twenty-nine day scholars. The school colours were black and gold. The badge showed a palm and an olive branch crossed under a star and surmounted by a scroll with the moto "Soli Deo Gloria" (Glory to God Alone). Academic subjects included English, foreign languages, mathematics, geography and history.

1933: Extensions to the Ursuline Convent to the east of Kerrielaw. Five classrooms and a temporary recreation hall were built. Above the classrooms was a dormitory with room for 20 beds.

1937: Extensions to the south of Kerrielaw - a dining room with dormitory space above and new classrooms erected under the supervision of Mr. L. Casey. College colours black and gold (1937-1938). Queensland walnut paneling on chapel walls completed. Joan Evans was Head Girl.

1938: Mother M. Veronica Purcell osu was Superior.

1939: Sister Alexis O'Connor osu was Superior and Sister Kevin Williams osu was Principal. On 6 December Doctor Roper, Bishop of Toowoomba, announces that the Ursuline Nuns will take charge of the new convent school built in Newtown (Our Lady of Lourdes). By the end of the decade the music department was flourishing and sport, dancing and physical culture were taken seriously too.

To find out more about St Ursula's College in the 1930s make an appointment with the Resource Centre staff to visit the College Archives.

Disclaimer - While every effort is made to ensure that information or data provided on this site is accurate and current, it is only intended as Archival reference.