• History of the Parish

  The Early History of Geebung

  For over 40,000 years the Turrbul people occupied the land on which modern Brisbane was built. They lived mainly north of the river, spread out over about 3,000 square kilometres. The rainforests of Zillmere and the coastal flats running down to the sea at Shorncliffe, Sandgate and Redcliffe provided ample hunting and fishing grounds for a comfortable life. But for a bureaucratic bungle in London in the late 18th century, the Turrbul people might still be roaming freely through their traditional lands.
  
  Captain Cook in his travels along the East coast of Australia in 1770 had passed close to North Stradbroke Island and named Point Lookout. On this voyage he claimed this great land for King George III and Britain. But both he and, later, Matthew Flinders failed to find the big (Brisbane) river which they believed fed into Moreton Boy. The convicts who sailed into Botany Bay under Captain Phillip in 1788 had actually been requested for a new settlement in Nova Scotia, Canada, to be known as New South Wales. But the clerk of works who acted on behalf of Lord Sydney (gone grouse-hunting in Scotland!) looked up the register, found a New South Wales in Terra Australis and directed the fleet there. So began the white settlement of Australia.
  
  In 1823 John Oxley, first Surveyor-General of New South Wales sailed north from Sydney to seek a  land  suitable for a new settlement. The aim was to move serious convicts and escapees from Sydney to a new penal colony thus reducing the proportion of convicts to free settlers and allowing for a more normal type of colonisation. Oxley managed to discover the Brisbane river which had eluded both Cook and Flinders but, on return to Sydney, recommended to his masters that the new penal colony be situated at Redcliffe Point. This was accepted and Oxley himself landed with the first convicts at Redcliffe the following year on 14th September 1824.
  
  Within seven months all realised their mistake: problems with mosquitoes, poor crops and tensions between white settlers and indigenous folk, coupled with a small group of the worst of criminals made it impossible to sustain a penal colony at Redcliffe. In May 1825, a group of twenty-nine convicts, guarded by a small troop of soldiers under the leadership of a Lieutenant Henry Miller, took to sea and wound their way down to Brisbane City to establish a more secure and lasting colony.
  
  Twelve years later Andrew Petrie was appointed from New South Wales as a “Foreman of Works” to help prepare for, and promote, settlement in Brisbane for “free settlers”. He arrived in 1837 and settled in Murrumba Downs. Petrie quickly established close relations with the Turrbul people, even learning their language Yugarabul. He is fondly remembered by the Turrbul people and is now regarded as the “father of Brisbane”. His influence extended far and wide across the northern side of the river, from Petrie in the west to Redcliffe, Sandgate and Shorncliffe on the coast and, on the southern side of this vast expanse, from Everton Park through Kedron, Nundah and Hendra to Eagle Farm.  Only one year after Petrie’s arrival, a group of German Lutheran missionaries set up their station at Nundah. Their mission was not a great success but their presence began the rapid expansion of white free settlement of what are now the Northern suburbs. Their legacy is a significant number of German street names in these areas. In the South-East corner of this vast expanse of “Petrie territory” lay the Place of the Geebongs,  where the indigenous people collected and ate the fruit of the Geebong (Persoonia Media).
  
  Over the next five decades successive colonial governments encouraged free settlers to develop large tracts of land, and many farms were established in the area. One of the earliest white settlers in these parts was George Church, grandfather of Kath Ballard, author of the 3-volume history of Geebung. It was only in 1890 that the land on which St Kevin’s stands was granted its first title deed, to a Mr Thomas Smith and to a Mr Christopher Shapland whose family built a small house in which they lived for several years.
  
  In 1893 the land passed to a Baruch Thorne who sold it one month later to John Christian Schillp. Some years later in 1902 the land, with its humble dwelling now vacant, came into the possession of William Henry Bowden. It was destined to remain in the Bowden family for the following 35 years. On the death of Mary Bowden in 1937, just a year after her husband’s demise, a Peter Dempsey became the owner of the land. He sold it in 1940 to a Charles Henry Petersen who subdivided it in 1946, selling part to a Cyril William Morsley and the remainder possibly to Archbishop Duhig. Five years later, on 18th April 1951 title of a portion of that Petersen land (4 acres, 2 roods and 17 perches) was definitively transferred to The Corporation of the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, under which title it remains to this day. The little home in which the elderly Mr & Mrs Sydney Shapland had lived in the 1890s had been extended by the Bowden family and was to be the first building of St Kevin’s parish, serving first as a presbytery, then a convent,  and later as the administration block for the school. St Kevin’s new administration block now stands on the site of that humble cottage in which the Shaplands lived some 130 years ago.
   

  The Parish History

  

  The Archdiocese of Brisbane signalled its intention to establish a separate parish at Geebung when in 1946 the then Archbishop, Sir James Duhig, purchased five acres of land from the Petersen family for the sum of 3,000 pounds.  This was a prime block of land, part of a farm, located on the top of the hill in Newman Road.
  
  This block lay vacant until 1st August 1959 when the Archbishop appointed Fr Timothy Norris, a Curate at St Paschal's Wavell Heights, to the position of Parish Priest.  In the 13 years since it was purchased the land had become overgrown, with the old farmhouse on the site unliveable.  Consequently Fr Norris continued to live at Wavell Heights, commuting to Geebung as necessary. 
  
  The local parishioners rallied around their new Parish Priest and a meeting was arranged in the old Community Hall which was located where the present RSL is now situated.  Following this meeting, fundraising began with the initial aim to renovate the old farmhouse in order to provide accommodation for Fr Norris.  In the meantime Fr Norris celebrated weekend Mass in the old hall.  Eventually the renovations were completed and Fr Norris moved into his first residence in Geebung on 5th June 1960.
  
  The focus then changed to planning for a church/school and presbytery.  Plans were prepared, bank loans secured and work began.  Again much of the hard labouring work for the church/school was undertaken by volunteer parishioners under the direction of local identity Jack Twigg, with the major building work undertaken by the Parry brothers from Wavell Heights.  The building consisted of a church at ground level and classrooms on the first floor level.  This building was opened on 6th May 1962.  The Sisters of St Joseph began teaching in the new school in 1964.
  
  Funding was then obtained for the building of the Presbytery, which was constructed without the use of voluntary labour. When this building was completed the sisters occupied the renovated farm house and established their convent.
  
  The final Parish building was the construction of a Parish Hall.  This building was named Glendalough and was officially opened on 1st June 1986. 
  
  Fr Norris remained parish priest for 53 years until his death in March 2013. Marist Father Aidan Carvill took responsibility for the parish as Administrator. Fr Robert Doohan was appointed the second Parish Priest from 24th May, 2015, that year being both the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians and Pentecost Sunday
  
  In 2019, the Parish celebrated the Diamond Jubilee of foundation. 2022 marks the Diamond Jubilee of the original building built by the Parish in 1962, The ground floor still serves as the Church and the classrooms above still welcome the children of Saint Kevin's School.
  
  In all things, we give thanks to Almighty God for His continuing protection and providential love for our Community of Faith, Hope and Love.