Information

Built: church 1926, school began 1916. In 1915, Fr Joseph Canali, the priest who served part-time in Bulimba’s small timber church, died. As Bulimba was growing, a new Saints Peter and Paul parish was created and a full-time priest Fr. Arthur O’Keefe appointed. The new parish decided to build a substantial memorial church in Canali’s honour and a foundation stone laid on 9 May 1916. But World War I effected fundraising and a convent school was considered a more immediate priority. The Catholic Good Samaritan Sisters opened the Saints Peter and Paul’s School in 1916. After the Great War, the church project resumed and architect Harry Marks was hired. His unusual, Jeffersonian neo-Classical style church, built in Main Street, opened in 1926, at the same time that ‘A’ Block’s south wing was added to the school. The postwar baby boom saw the need for school additions in 1962, 1970, 1984 and 1990. The nuns appointed lay teachers from 1996. The 1916 classroom was replaced with the Fr. Lee Building in 2002.

Citations

Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Parish of Bulimba – A Short Guide, (Brisbane: Parish of Saints Peter and Paul, 2015); Saints Peter and Paul’s Catholic School, www.stspp.qld.edu.au/Our%20School/Pages/History.aspx

Image Citations

Map References

QSA. QSA Series 1690 Civic Survey of the City of Brisbane – AIAG2 Series. 4 chains to the inch. City of Brisbane, civic survey maps. Sheet 20, 4 chains to an inch. Division No 3 – Shire of Balmoral. 618943