South West Life

A few years back your correspondent decided that life in the South West looked just the ticket and started to think about where that might be. Truth is we came to the conclusion that we’d live anywhere in the region but Bunbury. This was a conclusion arrived at in a pretty uninformed way, with some very old information and over time I’ve come to live in Bunbury and to decide that it’s about as good a result as I could have got.

The City has made some remarkable improvements over recent years, and there are some very nice, new structures in the town. A look around shows however, that there are some really valuable older buildings too. On Wittenoom St, pretty much in the middle of it all, there is a building which is very charming and very pink. It points out the contribution that a particular group of women has made to the development of the city and of the whole region.

The Sisters of Mercy were established in Perth in the 19th century and a convent was established at Victoria Square. In 1883, three of the Sisters boarded the SS Otway in Fremantle and sailed for Bunbury, whereupon commenced a very great deal of endeavour. A two roomed cottage was established and three women set about teaching young people, caring for the sick and generally doing nun stuff. As a non catholic, I can say that I reckon nuns are cool, and the few that I’ve known are clear that it’s not what three women did that made the achievement. Behind the black gear and the Irish accents I’ve known women who rely on a faith that’s bigger than them, and evidently bigger than the problems they face too.

The present convent was built on much the same spot as the old cottage stood. Records suggest that it was built in 1897, other records tell me it was opened in 1898. Big building though so I guess it took a year to build. The first Mother Superior was one Mother Mary Angela Costello. Some 18 years earlier a Bunbury girl, Ellen Costello had made her religious profession at Victoria Square. So much for my generalisation about accents. One old photo from around 1925 seems to suggest that the convent was red brick, so being pink is much later.

The building is fantastic, and can be visited as the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery. It’s been fulfilling that function for nearly 20 years since the sisters left it.

The building isn’t nearly as good a story, however as the women who populated it. For instance they were responsible for schools in Bunbury, Dardanup, Greenbushes, Donnybrook, Bridgetown, and Harvey.

The schools taught catholic values but responded to perceived needs. One record suggests that until the beginning of 1964, Sister Mary Paul was responsible for ALL the Bunbury trained shorthand typists. The convent was extended in 1919 to provide music rooms.

It’s a pointer to another time that these women who among other things are known for celibacy seem most often to be singled out because of persistence and love. The stories abound of them visiting the sick, caring for little children, providing extra tuition to struggling students.

Boarders were welcomed to the convent from the 1920s to 1969.

I had the notion that the Sisters had run hospitals, but it seems mostly that they had simply cared for people, and they did plenty of that. The recipients of that care are a veritable who’s who in the South West.

What was to be a story of a really cool building, turned out to be just a pointer to some really cool women. It seems that history is moving on and the 21st century won’t be as full of nuns as was the 20th. What has to be important is to make sure we see just as much of the faith and love as they carried for us.