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Mary Mackillop, the only Australian to have been declared a “saint” by the Roman Catholic Church, is well-known for her involvement with the education of the poor during the latter decades of the 19th century. Before she ventured to the small, isolated South Australian settlement of Penola in 1866, where she was to co-found the Institute of the Sisters of St Joseph with the Rev Julian Woods, she held the position of assistant teacher at a Common School in the Victorian regional town of Portland. While employed at the school, she was involved in an incident that eventually led to the dismissal of the head teacher, John Cusack. This paper examines the extent to which the portrayal of what happened at Portland, as recorded in various biographies of Mary, is supported by existing documentary evidence, particularly the records of the Board of Education.
The life of Mary Mackillop has attracted the attention of numerous writers and she has been the subject of many biographies, works of fiction (predominantly juvenile), documentaries, films, articles, and theses. Of the six “major” biographies that provide a detailed account of her life, including the early years prior to her becoming a Sister of Saint Joseph, all but one discuss her time at Portland.
The earliest biography appeared in 1916, a few years after Mary’s death in 1909, and was intended for private circulation among the Sisters of St Joseph. Although the name of the author was not given, it was later discovered to be Sister O’Laughlin, a member of the sisterhood. O’Laughlin was relied on by George O’Neill for his own work, published in 1931; together with research he had undertaken for a biography of Julian Woods, on manuscripts collected by the Sisters of Joseph, and personal interviews, including important information provided by Mary’s younger sister Annie in 1926. Osmond Thorpe’s book was published in (1957/1994), and remained the most influential biography for almost 50 years. A revised edition with extensive endnotes was published in Thorpe (1957/1994). The fourth biography, by William Modystack, appeared in 1982. Paul Gardiner, a Jesuit priest, prepared the formal investigation (The Posito), required by the Vatican in consideration for Mary Mackillop’s possible sainthood, and the published biography of 1993 was based on that research. The...