The Pioneers of the Australian Province: The Sunbury Seven
RUPERTSWOOD 1928-1931
Mother Liboria arrived in Sydney, Australia on May 3, 1928, from the USA and five sisters arrived at Port Melbourne, Australia from Hiltrup, Germany on May 21, 1928. Their original intention was to establish a place of welcome and recuperation for their sisters from the PNG mission. However, their first challenging ministry, at the request of the Archbishop of Melbourne, was to provide domestic care for the newly arrived Italian Salesians and their students at their first Australian boarding school, Rupertswood, in Sunbury.
At the Good Shepherd Convent in Abbotsford after their arrival in Melbourne the new community sat together and Mother Liboria asked, “Which one of you is the cook?” They looked at each other, and then at her. Of all six sisters comprising the founding community, not one could cook! The Salesian community at Sunbury included seven priests, four seminarians and five lay brothers. A few days after their arrival was the feast of Our Lady Help of Christians, patroness of the Salesians and therefore a big day in Salesian communities. The sisters found that a dinner with something special was expected and there was not one among them able to cook even a simple meal. Sr. Zaccaria wrote: “When the priests and brothers rose from the table, the expression on their faces was not at all a happy one “.
Mother Liboria and Sr. Zaccaria struggled on between them with the cooking until Sr. Leontine, an excellent cook, arrived from the Marshall Islands. To quote Sr. Zaccaria: “Every day was a hard-working day from morning till late at night. It was usually 9.30pm when we trod down to our little convent, sat down, and enjoyed a little respite and laughter to our hearts’ content. Then having said night prayers we retired to our night’s rest. Twice a day we had to provide a hot meal, at dinner and in the evening, soup from the stock pot twice a day and sweets for Fathers, Brothers, boys and workmen every day. On Feast Days we had to prepare an entree for all as well as sweets. In summer the Brothers worked all day in the fields, and we had to prepare the dinner in pots and dishes and tea in lemonade bottles which were collected in big boxes by one of the Brothers. As the Salesians had their own cattle and garden, the meat and vegetables were their own produce, and little was bought from the shops so there was little variety even on feast days.”
Mena House Hospital and Expansion to Lauriston Hall
By September 1931 the MSC Sisters moved to East Melbourne where they took over Mena House Hospital, a small private hospital with few pre-existing patients. Mother Liboria and her sisters, with the help of more sisters arriving from Germany and America, ran the hospital to their satisfaction.
By June of 1935, two sisters had completed their nursing training in Sydney and the community numbered fourteen. By September of the same year a cable was received from Germany announcing that twelve more sisters had been appointed to Australia and would leave on 23rd of September. Within a few weeks Mother Liboria had purchased the property in Wellington Parade (Lauriston Hall), which had been a guest house, to accommodate the new influx of sisters. We cannot help but marvel at the ability and courage with which Mother Liboria made decisions and implemented them!
Mena House also saw many more extensions and renovations, including a maternity section to accommodate fifteen babies. For the next twenty years it was a leading Catholic maternity hospital in Melbourne. Mena House became renowned both for the home-like atmosphere of its maternity section and the excellence of care in surgical procedures.
1936 Fulfilment and New Promise
After eight years of strife, misunderstanding, difficulties, and God knows what heartaches of disappointment and homesickness, the founding community of sisters were able to fulfill the original intention for coming to Melbourne. Mena House Hospital had been established; two sisters had come from PNG for rest and medical treatment and land had been purchased for a building, Sacred Heart Hospital, Moreland. Also, the first two Australian women entered as postulants.
In June 1938 the sisters broke ground and the cornerstone of the new Sacred Heart Hospital was laid in April 1939. Just under six months later, in October, the first group of sisters left Mena House Hospital to start the cleaning up of the new building at Moreland, and to arrange equipment for the reception of the first patients. Over the next years the hospital expanded with several new additions being built, including a Nurses’ Training School, accommodation for nurses and two new wings.
A Most Remarkable Foundation
It was in the final year of the second World War that the most remarkable of the foundations of the MSC Sisters in Australia came to be; remarkable in the sense that it is extremely likely that nowhere else in the world has a convent ever been housed in such an extraordinary building. Sheep and cows, ducks and hens, vegetable gardens and orchards, a fish hatchery, and aviaries, a ‘white’ sewing room and a ‘black’ sewing room – Idlewylde (later to become Mary’s Mount) had them all!
Mother Liboria was still mindful of their original objective; a rest and recuperation center for sisters from the missions at this time cut off because of the war in the Pacific. Estate Agent Mr. W. Niall was looking for a suitable property for the sisters and so took Mother Liboria to Idlewylde on in February 1945. By the 27th of February the purchase was finalized and the MSC sisters became the owners in April. The house was not suitable for a convalescent home, but with the expert assistance of architects Mr. and Mrs. Baum, the parents of our Sr. Francis, renovations were undertaken. It also became the Provincialate and from the beginning of 1946 missionaries arrived almost daily.
Everywhere Loved
1948 saw the establishment of Holy Cross Hospital in Geelong. In 1950 St. Joseph’s Tower, Kew opened its doors to care for elderly residents as did Mary’s Grange, Tasmania in 1956. MSC Sisters administered and taught in schools at West Heidelberg, Wattle Park, Balwyn and St. Alban’s South. Individual ministries developed as sisters lived the MSC charism wherever they lived and worked.
In 2004 when the last of our institutions, St. Joseph’s Tower closed, the sisters of the Australian Province had served the people of Victoria and Tasmania selflessly in MSC hospitals, aged care facilities, and Schools.
In this 96th year of the MSC foundation MSC Sisters have come full circle. The pioneer sisters came with nothing but their deep faith and commitment. Now MSC Sisters continue with the inner zeal and desire to live the MSC charism to the fullest. It is enough!
FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION
How would you describe the greatest strengths and greatest challenges from our pioneer sisters that existed in their communities?