St Anthony's Catholic School

In the early twentieth century, Kedron was still a mostly rural district straddling Gympie Road, the main thoroughfare to the north. Tanneries and other industries were located along Kedron Brook. In 1913, the electric tramline was extended to Kedron bringing with it residential development such as the Kedron Park Tramway Estate (1915) and the Glen Kedron Estate (1917) on the eastern side of Gympie Road. The tramline was extended again to the cemetery on Gympie Road in 1925. The 1920s were a decade of rapid growth evidenced by the opening of several new amenities including a Methodist church (1925), primary school (1926) and School of Arts (1928).

During the 1920s, the Kedron area was part of the Holy Cross Parish of Wooloowin. In 1923, Archbishop Duhig created the Kedron Parish of St Anthony and the Little Flower, opening a new timber church in Turner Road in October of that year. Like many other sites acquired by the Church in Brisbane in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it was situated on a hilltop with fine views. Just three months later, the timber church was destroyed in a cyclone. In 1926, the church was replaced with a Romanesque red brick church and a presbytery (now the parish hall) was constructed on the southern side of the church in Turner Road. 

The population of the parish began to grew rapidly from the initial congregation of around 50 parishioners. The existing church was unable to accommodate the congregation and was demolished in 1968. It was replaced with the current modern church.  

Archbishop Duhig purchased a large parcel of land (over six acres) opposite the church from the Brisbane City Council in 1926. This land had been resumed by Council with a view to extending their quarry, established below the hilltop in 1925. Three and a half acres of this land was set aside for a new school and convent. In 1929, responsibility for the parish was transferred to the Franciscan Friars.   Archbishop Duhig expressed his concern that so many parish children were attending state schools, including 69 at what was then Glen Kedron State School. Father Fidelis, who was appointed as the new Parish Priest, wrote to the Mother-General of the Irish Missionary Franciscan Sisters in Rome requesting sisters to teach in the Kedron Parish and received a positive response. Four sisters from the teaching order in Ireland and the United States were appointed to the Little Flower Parish of Kedron. 

On 25 November 1929, Archbishop Duhig laid the foundation stone for the new school. The brick, concrete and timber building was designed by architect, H.G. Sydes and built by Jack Schmid at a cost of around £2 000.  When the school was completed, the friars vacated the presbytery for the newly arrived Irish nuns and moved into the small rooms at the top of the school stairs. Meanwhile, construction had commenced on a substantial Spanish Mission style Friary on the northern side of the church.

The new school was officially opened by Duhig on 26 January 1930 with 80 pupils in attendance. It was described by the Brisbane Courier the following day as “a beautiful and commodious building”.  Mother Mary Scholastica was the first principal of the school as well as the teacher for grades 2 and 3. In March that year, Sister Mary Jarlath arrived to replace Mother Mary Scholastica as principal. The Sisters purchased the nearby nineteenth century home, ‘Delamore’, in 1939 for use as a convent. It later became the first home of Mount Alvernia girls’ college.

Due to the economic conditions of the Depression, families were expected to pay only what they could afford towards school fees. When enrolments were increased, additional classrooms were created by enclosing part of the area underneath the building. A tennis court was built on the Turner Road boundary on the site of the present tennis courts and a small building was located in the north western corner of the site. It appears that this was later incorporated into a new 1961 brick building. 

During the 1950s, the education programme of the parish was expanded. Mount Alvernia was established in ‘Delamore’ by the Missionary Franciscan Sisters in 1956. St Anthony’s outgrew their existing school and new buildings were constructed on the corner of Somerset and Turner Roads. The new St Anthony’s school was officially opened on 11 November 1951. 

The old St Anthony’s school site at the southern end of Turner Road was purchased by the Franciscan Friars,  opening in 1956 as Padua Primary for boys. (Title for the land was not officially transferred to the Friars until 1970).  Various additions to the site have been made since that time including toilet blocks and a new brick building in 1961 and another classroom block in 1970. 

Today, the site is still the home of Year 5-7 Padua students.  It remains an integral part of the historic Padua precinct which has provided spiritual guidance and education to generations of local Catholic residents since the parish was established in the 1920s.

The understory is partially enclosed with rooms on either side of a breezeway.

The building has three exterior staircases on the northern elevation and features both casement and hopper timber windows.

1. Brisbane City Council. Building Card

2. Brisbane City Council Surveyor’s Field Book for Kedron – Turner Rd 77 – C803-73 24 Oct 1945

3. Queensland. Certificates of Title

4. Queensland. Post Office Directories

5. Teague, DR., The History of Kedron, Colonial Press, 1976

6. Digitised newspapers and other records. http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper

7. Royle, M., Northern Suburbs Heritage Tour, Brisbane History Group, 1993

8. Phone conversation with Tony Battams, architect, 4 Dec 2014

9. Information and photographs kindly provided by Padua College and St Anthony’s School. Padua College website. http://www.padua.qld.edu.au/community/franciscan-community/franciscans-on-the-hill-network/ Viewed 4 Dec 2014