The work on a parish history, to be published late next year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of our parish church continues.

A big “thank you” to those people who have offered material so far about a range of topics: weddings, Children of Mary, Magellan Society, St Patrick’s Day, the Hibernian Society, YCW and so on.

I am still interested to get some information about Antioch and Cursillo groups. Going back a little further in time, the parish supported a number of sports teams: tennis and rugby league, certainly, and possibly others including bowls (or indoor bowls) and “women’s basketball” which I think probably means netball.

It has been difficult to find much information about the second St Joseph’s Church, the wooden structure near the corner of Jimbour and Bunya Sts that was used from 1886 to 1916 when it was demolished.

A visitor from Brisbane called into the Parish Office a few weeks ago, chasing some information to be included in his family research. As it turns out, his documented family history was able to fill in some gaps and remove some confusion that had existed about events in the 1860s!

I have quite a list of names of people to contact for their personal stories, and my apologies if you were expecting an immediate call from me. The original plan had been for some senior students from OLSCC to conduct and record the interviews, but COVID-19 has made a bit of a mess of that idea. 

We are still looking for photos and other details of sacramental celebrations (Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation) especially if those photos show off the fashions of the day or the exterior of the church. Any photos including the churches prior to 1921 would be fantastic!

Please label any photos you leave at the parish office with your name, and the names of anyone in the picture if you know them. A date, even if it’s approximate would be useful too.

Thanks to everyone for your support of this project!

Damien Morgan
Dalby, Qld, Australia

blog:   http://m-aspec.blogspot.com.au/
twitter:  @dlm1303