Building for the Future: Brothers in the Hills - 1936

The Australian Depression was in full swing. Families scraping out a living, men “on the wallaby track.” And the fledgling De La Salle Institute trying to envisage the future. Br Patrick Cawley, Provincial from 1925 made a critical decision in 1932. He bought the “Oakhill” property of Sir Owen Cox at Castle Hill, in the Hills district, in outer Sydney. It was to become the Lasallian head-quarters and “mother-house” for the Brothers for 40-odd years.

In 1928, Br Patrick said “Our Order is still struggling in Australia”, but he saw promise as Richmond, Haberfield, Orange, Dubbo, Bathurst, Roma and Marrickville opened Brothers’ schools 1926-32. There were now 15 communities of Brothers in 3 Australian states, 98 Brothers, 27 novices and 2,800 pupils. It was a consolidation of the District’s mission, some 25-years old, almost a mature adult-participant in the Catholic school world, albeit in competition with already established Christian, Patrician and Marist Brothers’ schools.

The Oakhill venture came due to the poor conditions with big numbers at Cootamundra, and importantly, the immediate need for more professional teacher training and access to university study. In addition, it was a solid property investment, as the future proved.

Br Benignus White, a pioneer of 1906 and the new dynamic Brother Visitor (1933-46), provided the drive to build on the commanding site of the Hills district, redolent with romantic links to English settlement and convict revolts of the 1790’s on.

A forward working party of student Brothers arrived from Cootamundra on August 20, 1932, remembered Baptist Will (a later Provincial) – “the first colonists…in the Promised Land. But it was no triumphal entry to the sound of sackbut and psaltery.” The group arrived at 10.30 pm in a borrowed truck, “in company with two pigs, several fowls, four hives of bees, a dog, two kittens, and a plough. This Noah’s Ark the Second” had a mishap on Parramatta Road in the dark, as two mattresses became airborne, but they were happily retrieved. Unloading the chattels occurred safely by the light of candles. The following weeks saw stock from Lismore arrive, and horses from Armidale. The two Brothers and the four Scholastics put in work establishing vegetable gardens and putting the grounds in order.

The 17 high school aspirants (called ‘Juniors’) soon arrived from Cootamundra and, by 1934, 5 Scholastic Brothers were also resident. The farm, established to feed all, was a going concern under Anthony Broderick (‘Bruv’). At year’s end, Br Benignus came back from the Belgian ‘Motherhouse’ to plan his own headquarters, and to deal with the financial debt.

In early 1935 he negotiated on building contracts totaling £36,000. Then, he renegotiated with a quotation of £25,000, having already incurring an authority for debt of £15,000. A grand building was planned which still impresses today: it was E-shaped, one longwing for novices, another for scholastics and the main for the ‘Juniors’. The central wing housed a beautiful chapel for all, the glorious stained-glass windows installed by a following Provincial. The Visitor acted as the clerk of works as the 1.3 million bricks arrived and the large training college gradually grew its three storeys with athletic-track length corridors.

The Catholic Press of 21 May 1936 noted that on Friday 15 May (the usual Australian feast-day of the Founder) Archbishop Sheehan blessed the 3-storey ‘motherhouse’ with its bell-tower . On Sunday 17 May with seven Masses celebrated on the main & two side altars, the College was inaugurated.

The “Training College” was a great achievement, and a massive commitment. It also incurred a heavy financial burden on the District, part of which was relieved by the Rome headquarters, and a loan from the Malaysian Brothers. As well as the many groups of Brothers in training, it housed a community of Brothers teaching the trainees, and a ‘Holy Family’ community, whose members served in the kitchen, laundry and the farm – all essential work which gave a family atmosphere, and a broader view of religious living to many young men.

Another complementary work was establishing on site a small school to allow the Scholastic Brothers to see and learn practical skills in teaching. The old Cox mansion was converted from trainees’ use to classrooms for boarders, who numbered 20 , with 10 day-students, by December 1937. The school also provided some regular income for running the Novitiate.  Thus, the foundation of Oakhill College. Some of the boys had their ponies to ride in the paddocks.

The year 1942, with the possibility of Japanese invasion, led to the College’s prospective requisition for a hospital annex. Although it never eventuated, the school boarders were evacuated to a new FSC school in Katoomba for some time.

The College property of 120 acres, as well as the boarding school, gradually boasted two football ovals built by the Novices from shale-soil hillsides. They laid concrete basketball courts. There were extensive fields for grazing cattle and other farm uses, essential for the dairy cows, pigs and chickens. For decades the farm was directed by Br Oliver O’Leary, a New Zealander. One field became a cemetery for deceased Brothers. An annual sports and picnic carnival, named “Oakhill Day”, attracted boys and families from all the Sydney schools.

Year by year, Brothers returned to “Oakhill”, as to home, for their December annual retreats and holidays. It was from there that many, with their meagre belongings, received new appointments to other communities and schools for the following year.

The Training College became more professional over the decades; there was registration with the Victorian Council of Public Education (1951). By the 1960’s trainee Brothers were attending the local Macquarie University or New England University. At the same time, with large numbers, Juniors moved to a rural property in Bowral NSW, and with a new philosophy of formation in 1966, to a ‘House of Studies’ in Cronulla. The Brothers’ Novitiate moved to Burradoo in that year, leaving the Castle Hill building to morph into the Catholic College of Education, under Br Ambrose Payne, as religious teaching orders combined their facilities in the 1970’s.

With so much land in a now booming suburban area, parcels of the property were gradually sold off, and proceeds were used to finance Brothers’ formation. The College building itself is now the property of Oakhill College, with its airy spaces and glorious chapel, used for worship.

For so many Brothers, the site, over nearly 90 years, has had strong emotional ties and many memories -  of growing, learning and maturing as young student Brothers, before serving in the Lasallian mission today. Others were college teachers or holding the material needs of up to 80 people satisfied. In 2024, with Oakhill College’s 2,000 plus students, it is still a centre of learning and teaching, for which the Institute was founded in 1680.

Source: Br Gary Wilson