History - Sacred Heart Parish - Inverell Catholic Church

History

This wooden building, staffed by the Sisters of St. Joseph, replaced the original school which was destroyed by a severe storm on December 11, 1888. The Sisters of St. Joseph withdrew to Tingha in December 1890. The Sisters of Mercy commenced teaching in Inverell on January 12, 1891.

In 1914, this brick school replaced the wooden building which became inadequate for the number of students.

A high school was added to the existing buildings in 1930. It consisted of two large brick rooms, parallel to Vivian Street. One room housed First & Second Year and the other Third Year – the Intermediate class.

St Mary’s Ross Hill was officially opened as a School-Church Sunday, Nov 1, 1953 by Bishop Doody. The first intake of students did not take place until first term 1954. The school was built to accommodate sub-primary and infants children living west of the River in order to relieve overcrowding at Sacred Heart School. After completing Year 4, the students moved down to Sacred Heart School. This continued till 1963 when boy students attended Holy Trinity from year 4, girls still stayed at Sacred Heart. In 1969 St Mary’s became an all- girls Primary School from years 4-6. In 1975 the school closed and the pupils transferred to Holy Trinity.

Name of Priest	Status	Appointed	Until	Note
Rev. Francis W. McLauglin	Unknown	1868	1868
Rev. G. Hewitt	Unknown	1870	1871
Rev. John Kelly	Unknown	1871	1873
Rev. John Davis	Unknown	1873
Rev. M. Sheehan	Unknown	1874
Rev. Joseph H. Doyle	Unknown	1879	1880
Rev. P. J. O'Connor	Unknown	1880
Rev. John Punt	Unknown	1880	1881
Rev. Cherubini	Unknown	1880	1886
Rev. Salvador	Unknown	1882	1882
Rev. Joachim Van di Heuvel	Unknown	1885
Rev. D. A. Mitchell	Unknown	1886	1893
Rev. J. Heatne	Unknown	1888
Rev. J. Morrissey	Unknown	1888
Rev. J. Dowling	Unknown	1887	1889
Rev. Matthew Ryan	Unknown	1890	1893
Rev. James Byrne	Unknown	1892
Rev. Joseph Austin	Unknown	1893
Rev. John J. English	Unknown	1893	1914
Rev. William Lee	Unknown	1893
Rev. Callisto Henry	Unknown	1894
Rev. P. Piquet	Unknown	1898
Rev. J. J. O'Neil	Unknown	1898
Rev. Thomas F. Harington	Unknown	1899
Rev. Charles	Unknown	1900
Rev. J. T. Clancy	Unknown	1901
Rev. Leonard C. P	Unknown	1902
Rev. Thomas P. Sheehy	Unknown	1904
Rev. P. J. O'Hanlin	Unknown	1905	1907
Rev. Patrick Condon	Unknown	1908	1909
Rev. S. G. Burchell	Unknown	1909	1913
Rev. Charles Dillion	Unknown	1910
Rev. J. P. Harrington	Unknown	1910	1917
Rev. M. Tobin	Unknown	1914	1914
Rev. P. Cregan	Unknown	1914
Rev. J. J. O'Neil	Unknown	1915	1948
Rev. J. O. Reilly	Unknown	1920	1923
Rev. John P. O'Connor	Asst. Parish Priest	1923	1927
Rev. John McDermott	Unknown	1924
Rev. Patrick Walsh	Unknown	1924	1925
Rev. P. J. Moloney M.S.C	Unknown	1926
Rev. C. Donleavy	Unknown	1927	1930
Rev. Thomas Leahy	Asst. Parish Priest	1930	1930
Rev. Maurice Tully	Asst. Parish Priest	1930	1935
Rev. Albert Spratt C.P	Unknown	1931
Rev. Norman Tuttle	Asst. Parish Priest	1934	1935
Rev. J. Cullen	Unknown	1935	1936
Rev. Thomas Stephenson	Unknown	1935
Rev. P. L. Doherty	Unknown	1936	1938
Rev. D. H. Hiscox	Unknown	1936	1936
Rev. J. Grace	Unknown	1937	1937
Rev. Edward Rohan	Asst. Parish Priest	1938	1942
Rev. J. S. Moran	Unknown	1939
Rev. John Hall C.M	Unknown	1941
Rev. Malachy Stevens	Unknown	1942	1946
Rev. Michael Foley	Asst. Parish Priest	1945	1947
Rev. John M. O'Connor	Parish Priest	1946	1946
Rev. William Corr	Unknown	1946	1949
Rev. Robert Watson	Asst. Parish Priest	1947	1948
Rev. James Conroy	Asst. Parish Priest	1948	1949
Rev. Bede P. Shanahan	Asst. Parish Priest	1949	1950
Rev. Mgr. Condon	Unknown	1949
Rev. Laurence Cosgrove	Unknown	1950
Rev. Clarence A. Fisher	Asst. Parish Priest	1951	1955
Rev. Reginald Mckervey	Asst. Parish Priest	1954
Rev. James Healy	Parish Priest	1957	1968
Rev. Stanislaus Campbell	Administrator	1957	1959
Rev. Bede Ryan	Asst. Parish Priest	1958
Rev. Bruce Macpherson	Asst. Parish Priest	1961	1962
Rev. Thomas Shanahan	Asst. Parish Priest	1962	1966
Rev. Francis Le Fevre	Asst. Parish Priest	1962
Rev. John Carey	Asst. Parish Priest	1962	1966
Rev. Francis Le Fevre	Parish Priest	1964	1969
Rev. Ronald Perrett	Asst. Parish Priest	1967	1969
Rev. Stephen Brennan	Parish Priest	1969	1974
Rev. Gerard Hanna	Asst. Parish Priest	1969	1972
Rev. Thomas Crowley	Asst. Parish Priest	1969	1970
Rev. Bede Ryan	Administrator	1970	1971
Rev. Michael Mullane	Asst. Parish Priest	1972	1974
Rev. David Teggins	Unknown	1972
Rev. C. H Leis	Parish Priest	1974	1980
Rev. R. Curry	Asst. Parish Priest	1974	1977
Rev. S. Hennesssey	Asst. Parish Priest	1977	1981
Rev. Bruce Macpherson	Parish Priest	1980	1983
Rev. Michael Mullane	Asst. Parish Priest	1980	1983
Rev. Ross O'Brien	Asst. Parish Priest	1980	1980	January to April
Rev. Ross O'Brien	Administrator	1980	1980	April to July
Rev. Thomas Crowley	Asst. Parish Priest	1981	1982
Rev. John Curran	Asst. Parish Priest	1982	1986
Rev. Michael Mullane	Parish Priest	1983	1996
Rev. Maxwell Davis	Asst. Parish Priest	1991	1995
Rev. Maxwell Davis	Administrator	1995	1996
Rev. Jose Adriano	Asst. Parish Priest	1995	2000
Rev. Paul McCabe	Parish Priest	1996	2002
Rev. Bernard Frize	Parish Priest	2002	2009
Rev. Jose Adriano	Parish Priest	2009	2015
Rev. John McHugh	Asst. Parish Priest	2010	2011
Rev. Roel Llave	Parish Priest	2015	2019
Rev. Thaddeus Ike	Asst. Parish Priest	2017	2019
Rev. Jayaraj Gorantla	Asst. Parish Priest	2019	2020
Rev. James Poovathinkal	Parish Priest	2019	Present

Convent School 1889-1913

Sacred Heart School 1914

Tender for the first church

Inverell's First Catholic Church 1871-1904

Sacred Heart School 1934

St. Mary's School, Ross Hill 1953