St Columba's Catholic College, formerly the St Columba's High School, 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 the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

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 t ...

secondary Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...

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

, located in the Blue Mountains region, on the border of Winmalee and Springwood, in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Established in 1979, the school is set in the grounds of the St Columba's property, which has extensive bushland surrounding the school. The property is a listed site on the

Blue Mountains City Council The City of Blue Mountains is a local government area of New South Wales, Australia, governed by the Blue Mountains City Council. The city is located in the Blue Mountains range west of Sydney. The Mayor of Blue Mountains City Council is coun ...

local government heritage register.

Campus

Originally built as a

Seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

in 1909, it was closed in 1977 and reopened as a high school in 1979. The

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

influence is seen in the

neogothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and the grounds with scattered

grotto A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and antiquity, and historically or prehistorically. Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high ti ...

s and

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

s overlooking the Blue Mountains World Heritage National Park of Australia NSW. The St Columbas property is one of the largest landholdings in the Blue Mountains Local Government Area. Much of the property consists of natural

bushland In Australia, bushland is a blanket term for land which supports remnant vegetation or land which is disturbed but still retains a predominance of the original floristics and structure. Human survival in bushland has a whole mythology evolving ...

and is

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

for some threatened and

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

. The school lets a peacock run around unsupervised. It is fully possible it could enter the bushland. It caused minor traffic problems on the 8th of November, 2023. There was also a peafowl who died in 2023. The school also boasts a cockatoo named 'Agro', who can repeat various words and phrases such as "Hello Agro", "Hello", and "Fuck". He can also do a little dance. He's also in an out of bounds area so nobody ever gets to appreciate him.

Symbolism

* 'Columba' is a Latinization of 'colum', which means dove. A dove is featured in the school emblem * 'Iona Chapel' derives its name from the Island of

Iona Iona (; gd, Ì Chaluim Chille (IPA: �iːˈxaɫ̪ɯimˈçiʎə, sometimes simply ''Ì''; sco, Iona) is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, off the Ross of Mull on the western coast of Scotland. It is mainly known for Iona Abbey, though there ...

where Columba founded the monastery

Iona Abbey Iona Abbey is an abbey located on the island of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest Christian religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianit ...

* Much of the architecture features the

Celtic Cross The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses er ...

* The Feast Day of

Columba Columba or Colmcille; gd, Calum Cille; gv, Colum Keeilley; non, Kolban or at least partly reinterpreted as (7 December 521 – 9 June 597 AD) was an Irish abbot and missionary evangelist credited with spreading Christianity in what is toda ...

on June 9 is celebrated annually by the college, notable events include the Teachers vs Year 12 basket/volleyball game * The demountable buildings appear to break frequently, which symbolises the broken dreams of every person that has attended the school and/or been in the demountable buildings. * The school boasts six house groups which they repeatedly try to force into the culture of the school to varying degrees of success, while also trying to create one big kumbaya community. Separating people into the same groups for the one time slot they get as a vaguely allocated "socialising" time wouldn't be the way to do that but that's something the admins did.

Telescope

A feature of note is a

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency ...

dish salvaged from the

Paul Wild Observatory The Paul Wild Observatory, also known as the Narrabri Observatory and Culgoora Observatory, is an astronomical research facility located about 24 km west of Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia. It is the home of the Australia Telescope Compa ...

at Culgoora, west of

Narrabri Narrabri ( ) is a locality and seat of Narrabri Shire local government area in the North West Slopes, New South Wales, Australia on the Namoi River, northwest of Sydney. It sits on the junction of the Kamilaroi Highway and the Newell Highway. At ...

in 1997. This is one of a

heliograph A heliograph () is a semaphore system that signals by flashes of sunlight (generally using Morse code) reflected by a mirror. The flashes are produced by momentarily pivoting the mirror, or by interrupting the beam with a shutter. The heliograp ...

array of 96 13.7-m dishes that circled the present location of the Compact Array. The heliograph array imaged the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

at 80 and 160

MHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

with several discoveries to its credit before decommission.''Compact Array and Mopra report'' Australian Telescope National Facility
Retrieved 5 February 2007 It is no longer at the school which is disappointing because it was the only unique feature of the school.

Principals

The following individuals have served as Principal:

Notable alumni

* Tom Eisenhuth, rugby league player * Jenna Jones, Paralympian * Emma Koster, netball player * Claire Zorn, writer

References

External links

St. Columba's Catholic College Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Columba's Catholic College Springwood Roman Catholic Diocese of Parramatta Educational institutions established in 1979 Gothic Revival architecture in Sydney 1979 establishments in Australia