St Joseph's Tobruk Memorial School, also commonly known as St Joseph's or simply Joey's, is an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

, located in the town of

Beenleigh Beenleigh is a town and suburb in the City of Logan, Queensland, Australia. In the , the suburb of Beenleigh had a population of 8,425 people. A government survey for the new town was conducted in 1866. The town is the terminus for the Beenle ...

in the

City of Logan The City of Logan is a local government in Australia, local government area (LGA) located in the south of Greater Brisbane in South East Queensland (SEQ), Australia. Situated between the City of Brisbane to the north and the City of Gold Coast ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It is administered by

Brisbane Catholic Education Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) is the educational Vicariate of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, Queensland. History The institution now known as Brisbane Catholic Education had its seed in the first Catholic school in the Roman Cath ...

(BCE) and is a member school of the Queensland Catholic Education Commission, with an enrolment of 448 students and a teaching staff of 32, as of 2023. The school serves students from

Prep PowerPC Reference Platform (PReP) was a standard system architecture for PowerPC-based computer systems (as well as a reference implementation) developed at the same time as the PowerPC processor architecture. Published by IBM in 1994, it allow ...

Year 6 Year 6 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including Japan, most of Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It is usually the sixth year of compulsory education and incorporates students aged between ten and eleven. It is genera ...

History

The school was announced in May 1951, under the name St Joseph's Convent and was to be an all-boys school. The permit was granted in June 1951, and the foundation stone was laid on 16 March 1952. Despite the weather on 16 March, many still attended the laying of the foundation stone. Originally budgeted at £20,000 in 1951, the final cost of the school ranged between £26,000 and £27,000 by the school's opening in 1953. The school opened on 25 October 1953, to honour those who served in the

Siege of Tobruk The siege of Tobruk () took place between 10 April and 27 November 1941, during the Western Desert campaign (1940–1943) of the World War II, Second World War. An Allies of World War II, Allied force, consisting mostly of the 9th Division ...

during World War II. Despite originally being planned as an all-boys school, it opened as a coeducational facility for

day school A day school — as opposed to a boarding school — is an educational institution where children are given instruction during the day, after which the students return to their homes. A day school has full-day programs when compared to a regular s ...

, but only accommodated boys for

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

. It had 97 foundation students. The school was blessed by

Archbishop Duhig Sir James Duhig Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, KCMG (2 September 187110 April 1965) was an Irish-born Australian Roman Catholic religious leader. He was the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, Archbishop of Bris ...

, with Leslie Morshead and 55 members of the Rats of Tobruk Association attending. In July 1955, the only replica of the Australian memorial in

Tobruk Tobruk ( ; ; ) is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District (formerly Tobruk District) and has a population of 120,000 (2011 est.)."Tobruk" (history), ''Encyclop� ...

was unveiled at the school, with approximately 300 members of the Rats of Tobruk Association present, and Archbishop Duhig unveiling the memorial. 1998 saw the school celebrate its past by inviting the project team for the Rats of Tobruk to plant rose bushes in remembrance. A rose garden featuring a memorial with 18 rosebushes was created. On 21 October 2006 the school was deliberately set ablaze, and was severely damaged. The cost of the repairs was more than $500,000; being the second incident in the last 10 years (since 1996), the first fire caused roughly $60,000 in damage. A number of surviving soldiers from Tobruk were involved in the school's rebuilding efforts, assisting with the RSL sponsored fundraiser for the school. The 60th anniversary was celebrated on 25 October 2013, with a Thanksgiving Mass and a 1950s dinner dance being held as the main events. The students wore yellow clothing on 1 August 2014 to support the Wear Yellow for Allison Day movement to remember Allison Baden-Clay, after an 11-year-old suggested the idea to the school council. In January 2024, the school's playground was replaced.{{Cite web , last= , first= , date=25 January 2024 , title=Pipes, planks, and tyres replace swings and slides at St Joseph's , url=https://catholicleader.com.au/news/education/pipes-planks-and-tyres-replace-swings-and-slides-at-st-josephs/ , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521033240/https://catholicleader.com.au/news/education/pipes-planks-and-tyres-replace-swings-and-slides-at-st-josephs/ , archive-date=21 May 2024 , access-date=17 August 2024 , website=

The Catholic Leader ''The Catholic Leader'', originally ''The Catholic Age'', then ''The Age'', is a newspaper published in Brisbane, Queensland from 1892, and is the official organ of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane. The Archdiocese of Brisbane says ...

, language=en-AU

Demographics

In 2023, the school had a student enrollment of 448 with 32 teachers (30.2 full-time equivalent) and 21 non-teaching staff (14.4 full-time equivalent). Female enrollments consisted of 225 students and Male enrollments consisted of 223 students; Indigenous enrollments accounted for a total of 7% and 10% of students had a language background other than English.

References

External links

School Website
Beenleigh, Queensland Private schools in Queensland Schools in Logan City Educational institutions established in 1953 1953 establishments in Australia

History

Demographics

See also

References

External links