History

The 25th September 1990 marked the official opening of the Outreach Centre within St Vincent's Clinic. Outreach or Family Care Services, as it was sometimes called, was formed by the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Australia to support the needs of women, especially the marginalised.

Sisters of Charity Beginnings in Ireland

In 1815 the Bishop of Dublin called upon a young woman, Mary Aikenhead, to be the foundress of a new order of religious sisters. This was not to be a conventional cloistered Order, for in addition to the usual religious vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, there was a fourth vow, that of "service to the poor". The Order was to be committed to the poor and disadvantaged of Ireland, particularly disadvantaged women.

The Sisters Journey to Australia

In 1838, Sydney was still a penal colony. Its residents were a ‘mixed bag' of free settlers, soldiers, prison wardens and convicts who ‘had left their native country for their country's good". Of these, a good number of convict women occupied the Women's Factory (a misnomer for a convict goal).

On the 31st December 1838 five Sisters of Charity arrived in the Penal Colony in answer to an appeal to Ireland by the Catholic Bishop of Sydney. These five Sisters of Charity became the first women religious in Australia and they began their mission of serving the poor and disadvantaged in their midst beginning with the women in the Women's Factory who were living in appalling conditions, rebellious and without spiritual help of any kind.