Part of the congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor. The Order was founded in 1839, and came to Australia with Five "sisters" of the order on the S.S.Salazie en route from Marseilles. They were joined in Melbourne by two other Sisters of the order established there, and the Salazie arrived in Sydney on the 1st of November 1886. Cardinal Moran became interested in the work of the Little Sisters of the Poor after visiting the home in Melbourne, championing the creation of a home in Sydney, and acquired a property for them in Leichhardt 'Elswick', now known as 'St Martha's'. The house was in a bad state of repair, but they cleaned the house, and by 23rd November they were caring for six aged persons, four ladies and two men. Within a year Elswick was proving too small for the needs of the poor, and with an outbreak of typhoid attributed to the locality, the Sisters acquired a six acre property on 11 July, 1887, in Avoca Street, Randwick. Two Sisters and a few residents moved into the little rented house to supervise the construction of a temporary timber home. On 14 August, 1898, the foundation stone of this new building, Mount St Joseph’s, was laid and two years later, on 22 June 1900, the chapel and building was solemnly blessed by Cardinal Moran. Further demand for the caring of the aged and the poor resulted in a new building being built on the site in 1915. On 16 September 1901 Cardinal Moran blessed and opened a building on the western side of Avoca Street. It remained as the novitiate for the Sisters until the 1980s when it was sold. The site is now occupied by the Emmanuel School. Mount St Joseph’s Home is now a facility of buildings on the eastern side of Avoca Street, across from the original site, providing 16 self-care units, a 20 bed low care hostel and 32 places for residents needing high care, plus accommodation for retired Priests. 1st November, 2011, marked 125 years of the order in Sydney.
