OUR STORY

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Mount Carmel College celebrates its rich heritage in the work of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop, co-founder of the Sisters of St Joseph in Australia in 1874, as well as the legacy of the work of the Sisters of St Joseph in our local area who worked hard to educate boys and girls marginalised from education and in response to the social inequity of the 19th Century.

Mount Carmel College continues to honour and nurture the Josephite charism by expressing this richness in the modern context.

1868
Sisters of St Joseph, co-founded by first Parish Priest, Father Julian Tension Woods and Blessed Mary MacKillop, opened co-educational schools in Dale Street, Port Adelaide and Pennington (Alberton).

1897
Marist Brothers open a boys’ school in Port Adelaide.

1902
Carmelites took charge of the parish. Marist Brothers open a school in Semaphore/Largs, which becomes a separate parish in 1907.

1909
Sisters of St Joseph establish Mount Carmel Primary School at the Pennington Terrace Pennington site (known as Alberton then).

1927
Marist Brothers School moved from Commercial Road Port Adelaide to 33 Newcastle Street Alberton (now called Rosewater).

1940
Mount Carmel Girls Secondary School was established on the site of Mount Carmel Primary School at Pennington, centralising the three girls’ secondary schools from the Port Adelaide, Alberton and Woodville areas.

1965
An influx of migrants into the area in the 1950s resulted in only girls from the Port Adelaide/Pennington Parish being enrolled in the secondary classes.

1966
Marist Brothers boys’ school is closed.
 
1967
The Sisters of St Joseph relocated Mount Carmel Girls Secondary School from being co-located with the primary school at Pennington, to 33 Newcastle Street Rosewater.
 
1971
The first Year 12 class was introduced.
 
1973
Original single story building converted to two storeys. New building consisting of library, typing room, science laboratory and matriculation room built.
 
1974
It was decided the Year 12 students would travel to St Paul’s College, Gilles Plains.
 
1983
The Mount Carmel Girls Secondary School became co-educational and was renamed Mount Carmel College. 
 
1984
The College introduces its full Year 12 curriculum and a major building program commences.
 
1989
First Lay Principal appointed at Mt Carmel College.
 
1993
Mary MacKillop Special Education Unit opened.
 
2011
The Sr Josephine Dubiel Centre is officially opened and aptly named after
former Principal and last Josephite Sister to lead the College from 1996 – 2005. 
 
2013
Josephite Courtyard development opened, which included the creation of the Josephite Courtyard; the reproduction of the Federation Garden and the demolition of the 1926 Marist building where artificial turf was laid in its place as a ‘soft space’ for students.
 
2014
The Rosewater Trade Training Centre and Carmelite Courts are officially opened and blessed by Rev Fr Philip Marshall, Vicar General of Adelaide.
 
2019
Year 7 students commence secondary school at Mount Carmel College.
 
2019
Sacred Heart Centre opened.

2021
Rosewater Trade Training Centre renamed as Western Technical College.
 
2022
Unification of Our Lady of Mt Carmel Parish Primary School and Mount Carmel College to become Mount Carmel College, a three campus school including a Primary Campus, Secondary Campus and the Western Technical College. 

 

Mount Carmel is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel. Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to mid-13th century. 

Five Carmelite priests, including Irish Carmelite priest Joseph Butler, arrived in Port Adelaide aboard the SS Liguria to begin the Australian Mission on 16 April 1881. They immediately moved to Gawler to work in the parish. The Carmelite priests moved from Gawler to the parish of Port Adelaide/Pennington in January 1902. The Carmelites withdrew from the Parish of Port Adelaide/Pennington on 10 January 1999.