St Ursula's College, Yeppoon, 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 ...

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', secondary 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 town of

Yeppoon Yeppoon () is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Livingstone, Queensland, Australia. Yeppoon is renowned for its beaches, tropical climate, and the islands out on the bay. Located from the city of Rockhampton, Yeppoon is the seat of ...

, in

Central Queensland Central Queensland is an imprecisely-defined geographical division of Queensland ( a state in Australia) that centres on the eastern coast, around the Tropic of Capricorn. Its major regional centre is Rockhampton. The region extends from the Cap ...

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 the Queensland Catholic Education Commission, with an enrolment of 553 students and a teaching staff of 50, as of 2023. The school serves students from

Year 7 Year 7 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand. It is the seventh full year (or eighth in Australia and England) of compulsory education and is roughly equivalent to grade 6 ...

Year 12 Year 12 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes the twelfth or thirteenth year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-comp ...

, and is the only all-girls, Catholic

day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...

and

boarding Boarding may refer to: *Boarding, used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals as in a: **Boarding house **Boarding school *Boarding (horses) (also known as a livery yard, livery stable, or boarding stable), is a stable where hor ...

secondary school in Central Queensland.

History

The school's history began in 1915 when Bishop Joseph Shiel proposed a Branch House for the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary be established at Yeppoon. Mother Ursula Kennedy and Mother Patrick Madden, two

Presentation Sisters The Presentation Sisters, officially the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, are a religious institute of Roman Catholic women founded in Cork, Ireland, by Honora "Nano" Nagle in 1775. The sisters of the congregation use th ...

, visited Yeppoon and selected a one-acre block in Queen Street for the construction of the branch house, which at the suggestion of Bishop Shiel became known as St Ursula's. The two-storey St Ursula's Convent, with St Joseph's Primary School on the ground floor, was officially opened by Bishop Joseph Shiel on 21 January 1917. Twenty-five boarding students and thirty primary students began attending the school 29 January 1917. With a demand for specialised education for young woman becoming apparent, St Ursula's College was officially opened at the site on 12 March 1918, with an enrolment of 32 students. The primary school was on the ground floor, with the secondary school on the first floor. In 1922, a new building was erected which is now called Gabriel Hogan House. With a surge in the number of primary school students in the 1950s, it was decided to establish a separate school with the Sacred Heart Primary School opening in John Street in 1958. Sacred Heart Primary School relocated again in 1991, to Lammermoor. In 1992, the Presentation Sisters formed St Ursula's College Limited, ensuring the school would continue to follow the Presentation tradition after religious leadership had stopped. The first lay principal of St Ursula's College was Margaret Ramsay, who was appointed in 1996. However, the Presentation Sisters remained on the staff at St Ursula's College until 2011. The Queensland Presentation Congregation transferred governance of St Ursula's College to Mercy Partners in June 2014. A century of catholic education and presentation presence on the Capricorn Coast was celebrated in July 2017. In 2018, St Ursula's College celebrated the school's centenary with a three days of celebrations.

School

The College campus is located in the Yeppoon central business district. The Boarding House is a three-storey Queenslander-style building that accommodates the changing needs of boarding students. Plans were submitted to

Livingstone Shire Council The Shire of Livingstone is a local government area located in the Capricornia region of Central Queensland, Queensland, Australia, to the immediate north and east of the regional city of Rockhampton. The shire, administered from the coastal to ...

in 2021 for a proposed expansion of the school. The plans included the construction of a new two-storey education block with new amenities, courtyard and covered area which would replace an existing building which would be demolished. StUrsulas10

The college's "sister school" is St Agnes' Girls School in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

. Students from St Ursula's College regularly collaborate with students from St Brendan's College to hold stage musicals for the community of Yeppoon.

Notable staff

* Chris Dawson, a former rugby league player, began working at the school as a physical education teacher in 1998. In 2003, he was put on light duties and had his contact with students revoked during the 2003 coronial inquest into the 1982 disappearance of his wife, Lynette Dawson. *

Rosa MacGinley Mary Rose MacGinley pbvm (1931 – November 11, 2018) was an Australian Presentation sister, academic and historian of women religious. She was the co-founder of the Golding Centre for Women’s History, Theology and Spirituality at the Austral ...

, a presentation sister and academic was the head of the school from 1954 to 1967. *

Courtney Winfield-Hill Courtney Winfield-Hill (; born 9 January 1987) is an Australian-born sportswoman who formerly played rugby league for and Leeds Rhinos. Originally Winfield-Hill played cricket as a pace bowler for Queensland Fire and Brisbane Heat, before m ...

, cricketer and rugby league player, was working as a physical education teacher in 2010.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Usula's College, Yeppoon Boarding schools in Queensland Catholic secondary schools in Queensland Alliance of Girls' Schools Australasia Presentation Sisters schools Girls' schools in Queensland Educational institutions established in 1918 Catholic boarding schools in Australia 1918 establishments in Australia Yeppoon Buildings and structures in Central Queensland