Sacred Heart Precinct

The site was part of an early land grant to Samuel Terry, a convict who became the Colony’s first millionaire.

 

In 1885 it was decided that a training house for catholic missionaries was required in Sydney. As a result of this decision the priests and sisters bought adjoining properties on the sand hills at Kensington. Built of Pyrmont sandstone in a federation gothic style, the imposing monastery and convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart both opened in 1897. The site has been in continuous use a monastery, convent and school ever since. 

 

Located on a prominent knoll in the western half of the City of Randwick. The buildings are highly visible from many parts of Randwick City, due to their height, elevated siting, and roof turrets and spires. They are set in spacious grounds, with large areas of lawn, large copses or Moreton Bay figs, plantings of palms, camphor laurels and other mature trees, and brick walling on most street frontages.

 

The Gothic style Monastery was designed by Sheerin and Hennessy and built by Dugald McIntyre in 1895. It acted as a Catholic church for the local Catholics from 1897 to 1907 when a school-church was built outside the monastery property. The Cloisters to the side of the building were added about 1921. Arthur S. King designed and P.D. Ryan built the Bishop Verjus Memorial Chapel attached to the Monastery in 1923. 

 

The Victorian Gothic/Queen Anne Revival style Convent buildings were designed also by Sheerin and Hennessy. The first phase of the construction was the original convent built in 1896, which was the first purpose built institution established in Oceania by the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, a French order, which was founded in 1882 and has operated in the eastern suburbs of Sydney since 1885. A small weatherboard co-educational primary and secondary school was subsequently built beside the Convent. 

 

In 1907 an addition was added to the convent, sympathetic to the original building style, along side the St Joseph's Cloister. This was to accommodate the growth in numbers of the Sisters, the visiting missionaries, and the sick and poor being assisted at the institution. Further additions were added to the convent building in 1927 and 1937. Also built in 1937 was a Chapel, designed by architects Agabiti and Millane in the Romanesque Revival style, with a small courtyard to the north, and surrounded by the also Romanesque Style St Michael's Cloister.

 

In 1954, a further wing addition to the convent was added, which had a Kitchen and Dining Room at the ground floor with bedrooms above. It was associated with the Society's Novitiate and was necessitated by the large increase in the numbers of young sisters in teaching and nursing training. Alterations to the buildings continued from the 1960s to the 1990s to consistently adapt to the needs of the Society and to accommodate the aging or infirm sisters. 

 

To this day, the convent continues as the administrative centre for the Australian Province of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, overseeing the charitable work undertaken by the Sisters throughout Australia and parts of the Pacific, and further remains as the sister's home house.