St Augustine's College (New South Wales) - History

History

The college was founded in 1956 as an all-boys school by the local Provincial of the Augustinians, Fr Thomas Alphonsus Hunt OSA, at the request of the then Archbishop of Sydney Norman Cardinal Gilroy. The Augustinians already had a school in Brisbane (Villanova), and wanted one in Sydney. A disused tram terminus in the northern suburbs of Sydney was picked. In accordance with Augustinian tradition, the friar who was head of the school was styled "Rector". Its first Rector was Fr David John Brimson OSA (1916–2004). The title "Principal" is now used for the lay headmaster.

From its founding, like many Australian Catholic schools of its time, a significant proportion of its staff were professed religious - in this case Augustinian friars - until the order withdrew professed teaching staff in the 1990s, and the school moved to a fully lay Catholic (cf. laity) staff in co-operation with the Augustinian order and ethos. The school taught the curriculum of the NSW Board of Studies as well as traditional Catholic values and the Catholic approach to ethics and the moral life.

2006 was the 50th year of the school's operation, with 1956 having been the founding year. All students of the school in 2006 were given a "Jubilee Medallion" to commemorate this occasion. Also, the official school tie was changed to celebrate this anniversary; the new "50 Year Jubilee Tie" is yellow with green and red stripes as opposed to the older tie, which was green with yellow and red stripes. There was also the creation of a new occasional school emblem/logo which incorporates this celebration.