St Patrick's College is an

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Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, Girls',

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

and

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 ...

located in the city of

Townsville The City of Townsville is a city on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia. With a population of 201,313 as of 2024, it is the largest settlement in North Queensland and Northern Australia (specifically, the parts of Australia north of ...

, in

North Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its Tropical North Queensland, trop ...

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. It is administered by the Queensland Catholic Education Commission, with an enrolment of 627 students and a teaching staff of 62, as of 2023. The school serves students from

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History

St Patrick's College was founded around the same time as the Townsville Grammar School, possibly in 1878, by a group of Irish nuns from the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

order. The Sisters were pioneers of education in North Queensland, and the college stands as a monument to their contributions. The schools official opening is dated as 1 January 1904. With onset of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in the

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, St Patrick's vacated the College buildings located on The Strand for use by the allied war effort, namely the W.R.A.A.F units. The Wartime College and boarding students were moved to different locations, West End and Ravenswood respectively. During the 1960s and 1970s the college adapted to educational requirements of exam criteria developed by governmental Educational Departments. Later government grants brought new infrastructure providing a library, new science laboratories,

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and language facilities and later

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. In 2008, the then current students could participate in the UN youth summit.

Notable Alumni

Madge Ryan Madge Winifred Ryan (8 January 1919 – 9 January 1994) was an Australian actress, known for her stage and film roles in the United Kingdom, including London stage productions of ''Entertaining Mr Sloane'' (1964), ''Philadelphia, Here I Come'' ...

, Australian actress, * Valma Weetman, R.A.A.F Corporal in the 1950s.

References

External links

* Girls' schools in Queensland Catholic schools in Queensland High schools in Queensland Schools in Townsville Educational institutions established in 1878 Queensland in World War II Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia 1878 establishments in Australia {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2019