St Columba's High School, New South Wales

For other schools of the same name, see St. Columba's High School (disambiguation).

St Columba's Catholic College
Location
Springwood, New South Wales Australia
Coordinates	33°40′24″S 150°35′19″E / 33.67333°S 150.58861°E / -33.67333; 150.58861Coordinates: 33°40′24″S 150°35′19″E / 33.67333°S 150.58861°E / -33.67333; 150.58861
Information
Type	Independent, Co-Educational, Secondary, Day
Motto	"Act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with our God"
Established	Seminary (1909-1978), Catholic High School (1979)
Principal	Paul Ryan
Website	http://www.stcolumbasspringwood.catholic.edu.au

St Columba's Catholic College is a Roman Catholic, co-educational, secondary day school, located on the border of Winmalee and Springwood, in New South Wales, Australia.

Established in 1979, the school is set in the grounds of the St Columba's property, which has extensive bushland surrounding the school. The whole of the property is a Heritage listed site.^[1]

Campus

Originally built as a seminary in 1909, it was closed in 1977 and reopened as a high school in 1979.^[2] The monastic influence is seen in the neogothic sandstone architecture and the grounds with scattered grottos and shrines overlooking the Blue Mountains World Heritage National Park.

The St Columbas property is one of the largest landholdings in the Blue Mountains Local Government Area. Much of the property consists of natural bushland and is habitat for some threatened and endangered species. The site is also rich in Aboriginal history, including over 80 archaeological sites. It was on this property that the Catholic priest Fr. Eugene Stockton commenced his studies in aboriginal archeology. The building is also rumored to be haunted, per numerous reports by students and teachers.^[3]

Timeline of school

1839 - William Lawson acquired the land.
- Sir Henry Parkes later owned the land.

1884 - Samuel Lees purchased the site.

1908 - Cardinal Moran bought the property.

1909 - St Columba's Seminary opened.

1910 - 26 seminarians began studying.

1923 - Brauer Hall extensions.

1933 - Main porch extensions.

1957 - North Building opened.

1960 - Chapel opened (Doc Joiner Library).

1977 - St Columba's Seminary closed.

1979 - St Columba's High School opened.

1982 - First Year 10 Class.

1992 - Cregan Building opened.

1994 - Dunne and Kelly Buildings opened.
- First Year 12 Class.

1996 - Doc Joiner Library opened.

1997 - Iona Chapel opened.

2003 - 'B' Block Building demolished.

2004 - 25th anniversary of St Columba's.
- Launch of the school song.

2007 - Development of St. Columba's Strategic Plan.
- World Youth Day Cross and Icon come to St. Columba's.

2010 - Dunne Building fire.

2011 - New 'North' demountables installed.
- Lawrence building refurbished.
- 'West' demountables removed.

2012 - Dunne Building reopened.

2013 - Main Building refurbished.
- Clonard Building opened.
- Old 'North' demountables removed.

2014 - St Columba's High School was renamed to St Columba's Catholic College.
- Saint Francis Building opened.
- 35th anniversary of St Columba's.
- Cregan and Dunne Buildings fire.

Symbolism

'Columba' is a Latinization of 'colum', which means dove. A dove is featured in the school emblem.
'Iona Chapel' derives its name from the Island of Iona where Columba founded the monastery Iona Abbey.
Much of the architecture features the Celtic Cross.

Telescope

A feature of note is a radio telescope dish salvaged from the Paul Wild Observatory at Culgoora, west of Narrabri in 1997 by an enthusiastic and apparently well connected former physics teacher, Ross Cutts. This is one of a heliograph array of 96 13.7-m dishes that circled the present location of the Compact Array. The heliograph array imaged the Sun at 80 and 160 MHz with several discoveries to its credit before decommission.^[4]

Houses

Mackillop (purple)
Lawrence (blue)
Henson (red)
Gilroy (yellow)
Bradman (black & white)
Chisholm (green)

These houses are split into two or three groups for classes. Each house has 2 sub-classes called homerooms. They are only used until Year 9, when a house combines as one homeroom.

List of principals

1979–1985 Sr. Anne Henson
1986–1992 Jim McCartan
1992–1998 Geoff Hicks
1998–2001 Alan Moran
2001–2005 Dr. Anne Wenham
2005–2013 Delma Horan
2014–Present Paul Ryan

The 'B' Block (the North Building)

Just to the north of the Main Building is a big rectangular patch of tar, on which a building stood. This brick, four-story building was used as dormitories when the site was a seminary. When it became a school, the rooms had been redesigned to be like classrooms. The lack of walls made the whole building structure weak and unreliable. As the building got old it became unstable. The building itself did not have any good fire exits, making it a fire hazard. It also had traces of asbestos in its walls.

In 2003, the 'B' Block was finally demolished along with the connecting walkway from the Main Building (the Dinosaur). They simply replaced the old concrete with tar. All was left was the two doors that separated the walkway from the main building (as the doors to nowhere). A few later the doors were replaced with a bay window. Currently, the patch of tar holds a couple of demountables and is used as a handball facility.

References

↑ NSW Heritage Office Website - Online Database
↑ Our Story St Columba's High School Retrieved 5 February 2007
↑ http://ghostinvestigator.tripod.com/australiangis/id2.html
↑ Compact Array and Mopra report Australian Telescope National Facility Retrieved 5 February 2007

External links

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