Our Heritage
Marian College has a long and distinguished history. Beginning in 1888 with a visit to Abbeyleix by Dr. Moore, Bishop of Ballarat, five sisters from the Brigidine Community journeyed to Ararat to begin a long and steadfast educational tradition. Mother Gertrude Kelly, Mother Cecilia Synnott and Sisters Josephine Clancy, Paul Barron and Malachy Byrne arrived in Ararat 1888.
The foundations for the Brigidine Convent building were commenced in that same year and in August 1889 the foundation stone was laid with due ceremony. The convent was built in stages with the final section being completed in 1900.
The Brigidine Convent opened a primary section as the Marian School in 1954. With this name change came the construction of two new classrooms. In the early 1960's the convent phased out the primary section. The name ‘Marian College’ was adopted for the secondary school in 1962, during its years of transition to a fully functional secondary school. In subsequent years’ additions, alterations and renovations were constantly occurring. 1969 saw a modern Science Laboratory and prep room added. In 1979 a new set of class rooms known as the Ursula Hayes Wing was built. Between 1996 and 1999 the college underwent major alterations. Renovations and updates occurred throughout all areas of the college. A new VCE Wing and Technology/Arts/Home Economics/Textiles and Computer Wing were added. These new wings were named the ‘Dorothy Molloy’ and ‘Brendan Davey’ Wings.
The college took female boarders from its inception. Boarding ceased at the college in 1980 thus beginning the conversion from convent building to school building, with the nuns moving into the present convent. The school now occupies the entire convent building.
Initially, Stawell students were unable to attend the college from Stawell, with the exception of the boarders. Father Brendan Davey was instrumental in transporting students, firstly by car, to Marian College. As the numbers grew, students came by mini bus. Today several buses bring a large percentage of students from Stawell and outlying areas every day.
For many years the school was staffed entirely by the Brigidine Sisters. Lay staff began to be employed during the last half of the 20th Century with Mr. John Shannon being the first lay Principal to be appointed to Marian College by the Brigidine Provincial Council in 1980.
A Kildare Ministries school in the Brigidine tradition.
Kildare Ministries was officially launched in Melbourne on 18 March, 2014 and in Sydney on 31st March, 2014. It comprises the educational and community works formerly governed by the New South Wales Province of the Brigidine Congregation, the Victorian Province of the Brigidine Congregation and the Presentation Congregation of Victoria).
Kildare Ministries has received the authority to act as a Church body (Public Juridic Person). The collaboration and participation by lay colleagues reflects the response to the call of Vatican II for religious to rethink the sharing of mission and to recognise the call of all the baptised to contribute to the leadership of the Church.
Kildare Ministries takes its name from the Irish Cill Dara, Church of the Oak. It links to the spiritual heritage of St Brigid, Patroness of Ireland, and to the ancient order of St Brigid of Kildare, which existed in Ireland from the fifth until the sixteenth century, when the monasteries were suppressed. Bishop Delany chose St Brigid as patroness of the Congregation he re-founded in 1807.
The name Kildare is also significant to the Presentation Congregation. Presentation Sisters from Kildare in Ireland, established a foundation in Wagga NSW in 1874 and from there they established a community in Elsternwick, Melbourne.
Marian College Ararat became a Kildare Ministries school — meaning its governance transitioned from being directly under the Brigidine Sisters to being part of Kildare Ministries’ stewardship — in 2018. That year the college celebrated a formal “entrusting of stewardship” ceremony on 13 August 2018, marking the governance handover to Kildare Ministries Trustees while retaining its Brigidine tradition and sponsorship by the Brigidine Sisters.
