Penola - The Yellow House
Penola is a small township in South Australia, and is the place where Mary MacKillop started her first schoolhouse. The school was to be a new type of school - a Church school - where the education was free to all children.
The first school was an old stable. Mary's students had had little or no previous schooling, and many of their parents were almost totally illiterate. Mary's aim was to give each child a sound knowledge in the basics; reading, writing and simple arithmetic.
Prayer and instruction in the catechism were a central focus with hymns and prayers featuring in the daily timetable. These particular activities were intended to give the students a sense of their catholic identity and an understanding that religion was part of ordinary life, not something reserved for church on Sundays.
The success of the school was immediate. Soon other dedicated young women joined Mary, and the Sisters of St. Joseph was formed - the first religious order founded by an Australian. Dedicated to supplying a free education to all that needed it, the Sisters spread rapidly throughout the Australian landscape. They lived amongst the people who needed the most help.
Today, the township of Penola is home to the Mary MacKillop Penola Centre which highlights the enormous heritage that Mary MacKillop, and the township of Penola, has become to all Australians.