Our Story
The history of St Mary's College, Wattle Creek, from its founding by the Sisters of St Joseph in 1954 to today's Prep–12 college of 1,480 students.
St Mary's College began in 1954 with two Sisters of St Joseph, 62 children and a borrowed church hall. Seventy-two years later it is a Prep to Year 12 college of around 1,480 students on the same site at 14 Chapel Road — but the founding purpose has not changed. The Sisters came to Wattle Creek to give ordinary families a Catholic education of real quality, and that is still the job.
The Josephite foundation (1954–1977)
In the early 1950s Wattle Creek was a semi-rural settlement of orchards and small farms about 35 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, growing quickly with post-war migration. The parish priest of St Mary of the Cross Parish (then simply "St Mary's, Wattle Creek") asked the Sisters of St Joseph to open a primary school. Sr Mary Columba Ryan rsj arrived in January 1954 with one companion, and St Mary's Primary School opened on Monday 1 February 1954 in the parish hall with 62 children in three composite grades.
The Sisters lived in a weatherboard convent on Chapel Road that still stands as our Heritage Cottage beside the Junior gate. Fundraising was relentless — dances, fetes, raffles of a live sheep — and by 1962 the first permanent brick classrooms were opened where the Penola Centre now stands. Enrolments passed 300 by 1970.
Becoming a secondary college (1978–1997)
As Wattle Creek grew, families wanted their children to continue Catholic schooling beyond Grade 6 without a long bus trip. In 1978 St Mary's opened its first Year 7 class of 48 students in portable classrooms on the paddock that is now the Main Oval. The school added a year level each year, and the first Year 12 class graduated in 1984 — 31 students, several of whom still live locally and whose grandchildren now attend.
The Sisters gradually handed the school to lay leadership. Mr Frank Malloy became the first lay principal in 1991, and the last Sister left the classroom in 1996, though the Josephite connection continues today through our College Chaplain, Sr Bernadette Long rsj.
One college, Prep to 12 (1998–2009)
In 1998 the primary and secondary schools, which had operated side by side under separate principals, amalgamated as St Mary's Catholic College, Wattle Creek — a single Prep to Year 12 college on one campus with a Junior School and a Senior School. The House system was reorganised at the same time into the four Houses still in use: MacKillop, Chisholm, Polding and Romero.
The Golden Jubilee in 2004 was marked by the opening of the Sports Centre and the first Mary MacKillop Hall, seating 650, which remains the heart of college life for assemblies, concerts and the annual musical.
The MacKillop years (2010–today)
When Mary MacKillop was canonised on Sunday 17 October 2010, the college formally adopted her as patron under her new title, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, and took up the motto Lumen in Tenebris — "Light in the Darkness" — from a line in one of her letters. Her feast day, 8 August, has been the college's major celebration ever since; this year it was marked on Friday 7 August 2026 with whole-school Mass and the MacKillop Day festival.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1954 | School opens in the parish hall with 62 students and two Sisters of St Joseph |
| 1962 | First permanent classrooms |
| 1978 | First Year 7 class (48 students) |
| 1984 | First Year 12 graduating class (31 students) |
| 1991 | First lay principal, Mr Frank Malloy |
| 1998 | Primary and secondary amalgamate as a Prep–12 college; Houses reorganised |
| 2004 | Golden Jubilee; Sports Centre and Mary MacKillop Hall opened |
| 2010 | Canonisation of Mary MacKillop; motto Lumen in Tenebris adopted |
| 2014 | Learning Commons (library and study centre) opened for the 60th anniversary |
| 2019 | Trinity Performing Arts Centre opened; Dr Helen Carmody appointed Principal |
| 2024 | 70th anniversary; Carroll Science Centre refurbished |
| 2026 | 1,480 students, 165 staff |
Dr Helen Carmody, our current Principal, was appointed in 2019 after serving as Deputy Principal at the college for six years. Under her leadership the college has completed the Trinity Performing Arts Centre, refurbished the science laboratories and introduced the Year 7 laptop program.
The Sisters' legacy today
You will see the Josephite influence everywhere if you know where to look: the brown-and-cream Josephite colours in the chapel windows; the "Penola" and "Tenison" names on our Junior buildings (Penola, South Australia, is where Mary MacKillop and Fr Julian Tenison Woods opened the first Josephite school in 1866); the Junior School's Friday assembly beginning with Mary MacKillop's words "Never see a need without doing something about it"; and the priority we give to families who could not otherwise afford a Catholic education, through our confidential bursaries.
Alumni and archives
The college archive is kept in the Heritage Cottage and is open to past students and families by appointment. If you have photographs, uniforms or memorabilia from any era, we would love to see them — please contact the Principal's office. Past students are welcome at our Open Day on Sunday 8 March 2027 and at the annual MacKillop Day festival each August.
Contact
Principal's Office (archives and alumni) — Dr Helen Carmody, Principal Phone (03) 9555 0100 · Email office@stmaryswc.vic.edu.au · Monday–Friday 8:00am–4:30pm during term.