History
a place of faith and high quality boys’ education since 1881.
In February 1872, four Marist Brothers travelled from London to open Australia’s first Marist Brothers school, in Harrington Street in The Rocks. With their house in the city not yet ready, they were invited to stay with the Marist Fathers, who had bought land in Hunters Hill in 1847 with the help of Bordeaux-born local resident Didier Joubert. Didier and his brother Jules would go on to develop Hunters Hill.
In 1876, Didier sold 10 acres for 300 pounds to the Marist Brothers for their planned boarding school, which they would transfer from Harrington Street, and novitiate.
Five years later, on 18 July 1881, the Lane Cove steamer brought 44 boys from Erskine Street to Fig Tree Wharf. Their new school, a four-minute walk up the hill, was St Joseph’s College Hunters Hill.
From humble beginnings.
On 18 July 1881, the Lane Cove steamer brought 44 boys from The Rocks to Hunters Hill.
Welcoming
day boys.
Since its inception, Joeys was as it always had been – a full-boarding school with Marist Brothers comprising a large proportion of the teaching and administrative staff. However, in 1996, as a response to falling enrolments affecting boarding schools everywhere, Joeys was welcoming its first ‘extended’ day boys into Year 7.
Unlike other schools, however, there would be no delineation between boarders and day boys. The boys were to be a united community, enabling the school to thrive while maintaining the strong boarding traditions that made Joeys unique.
To that end, day boys were allocated their own dormitory press and bed and could sleep at Joeys two nights a week. Otherwise, they came to school at 8.15am and stayed until 5.00pm or, on at least three days a week, until 8.00pm, on those days studying and eating dinner with boarders before going home. Like the boarders, they would attend sports practice during the week and games on Saturdays.
The new enrolment policy applied to Years 7, 8 and 9; Years 10 to 12 would still be compulsory full-boarding – until 2005, when the weekly boarding option was introduced. By 2006, day enrolment became available from Years 7 to 12.
Along with the expanded range of enrolment options, the new century saw the continuing secularisation of the Joeys teaching and boarding staff.
By 2006, most senior staff were lay, and the 27th and last Marist Brother Headmaster, Br Paul Hough, passed the baton to the College’s first lay Headmaster, Mr Ross Tarlinton OAM.
Shaping the College.
Joeys will always be a College shaped by its community. Our approach and the achievements of Joe-Boys are driven by our Marist faith, professional teaching and administrative staff, committed families and supportive wider friends.
Brothers & staff
Br Emilian Hall, where boys gather fortnightly for the Headmaster’s Assembly, and where Family Mass is held each term, bears the name of the first Headmaster of St Joseph’s College, arriving from France via Noumea in November 1878. The teaching staff in the early years were mostly all Marist Brothers, members of an order established by Saint Marcellin Champagnat in La Valla, France, to teach rural boys otherwise deprived of a Christian education.
Other Brothers whose names adorn College buildings today include Br Louis Hughes (the Br Louis Music Centre), to whom the College owes its art collection and Chapel, and Br Liguori O’Hearn, a gifted mathematician whose photograph looms large in the Br Liguori Resources Centre.
Hundreds of Marist Brothers have taught at St Joseph’s. Deputy Headmaster Br Anthony Boyd’s retirement in 2019 marked the end of the Brothers’ presence on the teaching staff, however they continue to be a guiding light and inspiration to the College.
Today, lay staff continue to support the Catholic and Marist charism and tradition of the College, embracing the vision of St Marcellin Champagnat.
Families & friends
The families of boys enrolled at Joeys are as much a part of the community as the boys themselves. Parents describe enrolling at Joeys as akin to joining a family unit, and the College considers itself to be in close partnership with parents on this journey.
This active role in mutual support is formalised by our Parents & Friends Association, established in 1935. The P&F’s fundraising has contributed immeasurably to College facilities, from the construction of new buildings and sporting facilities to the purchase of school buses.
Contributing to the College’s strong sense of legacy and community, many of its families are multi-generational, including a fifth-generation Joe-Boy from northwestern NSW whose great-great grandfather enrolled at the College the year after it opened in 1882!
We are driven by our collective spirit and communal support.
Walking Together.
St Joseph’s College acknowledges the immense weight of past wrongdoing revealed through the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. Instances of historical sexual abuse perpetrated by Marist Brothers at the College represent great sorrow for its victims, survivors and their families – and a call for repatriation and compassion moving forward.
In September 2023, the College dedicated the Walking Together Memorial in a solemn ceremony including formal apologies made on behalf of the Marist Brothers and the College, and a steadfast commitment to listen, understand and act, to nurture and support all students with the highest standard of safety and care. Through this promise, along with robust Child Safeguarding measures and modern reporting requirements, the College strives to ensure such atrocities shall never be repeated.
The Committee
College leaders worked closely with a focus group of Old Boys, including a survivor of sexual abuse and several of his classmates, whose solidarity reflected deep commitment – an assurance that ‘you’ll never walk alone’. Together, the Walking Together Committee sought to address meaningfully the College’s response to past abuse; restore integrity by establishing a permanent and visible acknowledgment of this history; and carefully address the way the College honours its past.
The Memorial emerged through a patient, sustained process over several years. The careful work of the Committee, sustained through an enduring partnership with three successive Headmasters, reflects a shared determination that this acknowledgment be undertaken with respect and integrity, adding emphasis to the Memorial’s significance as a healing journey.
The outcome was the commissioning of a memorial, built within, and deliberately standing on, College grounds. It is a statement of remembrance and a catalyst for honest conversation and inclusive dialogue throughout the St Joseph’s College community, past and present.
The Memorial
The Memorial’s cubic design form signifies the journey the victims, survivors and the Joeys community had undertaken. At the memorial’s centre is a spherical vessel of moving water, which represents repair, cleansing and the tears that have fallen.
The Archives: preserving the past.
Tucked beneath the Resources Centre, the Archives is where the work of documenting and preserving the College’s rich history takes place. Among its many treasures are copies of every school magazine published since the first edition in 1888 and the achievements and triumphs of thousands of Joe-Boys.
The Archives Museum offers a fascinating insight into many aspects of the College’s past. Early photos show boys in wool-sorting class, swimming in the school baths in Tarban Creek, and playing cricket in 1883 as construction of the Main Building takes place in the background. Metal prayer hearts and ornate processional banners are among the spiritual treasures on display.
Our exceptional College archivists are available to help with family history searches (for a small donation). We are always looking for historical College memorabilia to add to our collection, so if you have treasures that you think should be part of our archive, please reach out to our Archives team.
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