By Emilie Ng
WHAT used to be the home of the Good Samaritan Sisters in Gayndah from 1919 to 1995 now serves the community in the form of an arts and cultural centre.
The Good Samaritan Sisters arrived in Gayndah in 1919 just as their new convent opened.
The convent served as a schoolhouse and boarding house to students until the Good Samaritans moved to a smaller house in 1995.
After years of watching the convent slowly decline, Gayndah State School and St Joseph’s Catholic School came together to turn the convent into a centre to increase art opportunities for students and the community.
The two schools applied for the Local Schools Working Together program, a grant that encourages independent and Catholic schools to work with the government to develop shared education facilities.
They successfully received $2.37 million to fund the project two years ago.
While the Church owns the land, the centre is now enriching not only Catholics, but the wider Gayndah community in the same spirit of the Good Samaritans.
Gayndah parish priest Fr Jason Middleton said the convent had gradually declined and the parish had little funds to restore it.
“The grant was a blessing,” Fr Middleton said.
Fr Middleton said the centre was a great way to share their resources with the wider community.
“Whether people know the history of the building or not, it puts the Catholic Church into the public forum a bit more,” he said.
Gayndah’s Catholic community met at the centre for a seminar on Pope Francis’ first pontifical year in early March.
Fr Middleton said the seminar, conducted by Evangelisation Brisbane’s formation team, showed the town was “still remembered”.
“And that’s always appreciated,” he said.
The Gayndah parish is planning to celebrate its centenary next year.
