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 The District of Australia, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand
Edited by Br. Donald Johanson |
The District of Australia includes Lasallian establishments in Papua New Guinea and New Zealand as well as in Australia itself. Geographically this represents a vast expanse, greater than the whole of Europe. All three countries have evolved from being British colonies or dependencies to being independent Commonwealths within the wider British Commonwealth. For the greater part of this century, until 1975, Papua-New Guinea was a dependency of Australia.
Beginnings: The Australian District was founded at the end of 1905 by a joint venture of eleven Brothers, English speaking from the Irish District and French speaking from the District of Nantes. The French Brothers command of English was not sufficiently advanced to undertake teaching under a school system of which they had no experience, so after several months they left for Ceylon where there was urgent demand for their services.
 [Photograph taken on 15th November 1905 at St Joseph's Industrial School, Manchester, before the Brothers sailed on the S.S. Runic. Front Row (left to right): Brothers Macnesius, Alban Josephus, Athanasius John, Patrick Xavier. Back Row (left to right): Brothers Benignus Patrick, Camille Eugene, Camélian, Claude Marie, Cajetan de Jesus, Défendant, Daniel Paul, Défendant Marie.]
Other Brothers soon came from Ireland to join them; between 1906 and 1937 some eighty Irish Brothers served in the Australian District. At present time almost all of the Brothers are nationals of Australia, New Zealand or Papua-New Guinea. The Australian Brothers have themselves become missionaries. Not only have they served in Papua-New Guinea for nearly half a century, but over the years the District has sent several volunteers to Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and South Africa.
Australia has been an independent District since 1913, gradually extending its establishments throughout the country and later into Papua-New Guinea (1946) and New Zealand (1953). This expansion was possible owing to the considerable number of vocations in the '50's and '60's. Numbers in the Australian District peaked in 1967 at exactly 300 Brothers. Since then, however, there has been a steady decline in numbers and an accompanying rise in the age level. This has necessitated the Brothers withdrawing from many of their establishments.
 Papua-New Guinea Mission: In 1946 the Brothers worked on the Papua coast in collaboration with the French M S C missioners. At the end of the 1960s they moved into the mountain interior where the missioners mainly belong to the S V D. At present, there are a number of Brothers working in five different establishments. Despite the dwindling total number of Brothers, the Australian District has maintained and even increased its numbers in the PNG sector.
As initiation into the life and work of the Brothers, the Aspirants are engaged in various types of "non-formal" education in the squatter settlements around Port Moresby. They teach basic literacy and numerary as well as giving religious instruction to children and youths who cannot find a place in the schools. Because of their fluency in the lingua franca, Pidgin, or Tok Pisin, they are better able to do this than are most of the Brothers.
 At the moment there are 21 communities and some 27 Lasallian schools, nearly all of which are secondary. This includes three establishments in New Zealand and five in Papua-New Guinea. In Australia itself there are 19 Lasallian schools, nearly all of them full secondary High Schools.
The Brothers, through the development of their former Scholasticate (De La Salle Training College, Castle Hill) have played a large part in the evolution of the Australian Catholic University which was opened in 1991.
Special Educational Works: Prominent among the present works of the Brothers is the Boys Town complex, founded in southern Queensland in the late 1950's, after an earlier similar venture in Sydney in the 1940's. Boys Town, Beaudesert, affords special education and guidance to boys and adolescents most of whom have already come into conflict with the law. Boys Town has been generously supported not only by private charity but by the State government of Queensland and has now become a massive and extended enterprise with all kinds of ancillary support services, most prominent among which is Kids' Help Line.
 Kids Help Line is Australia's only free, national telephone counseling service for children and young people aged 5 to 18. The service began in Queensland in March 1991 and progressively expanded into the other states and territories, becoming a national service with the launch in NSW in May 1993. The service is available 24 hours a day from anywhere in Australia. It is designed to afford immediate direction and help to children and young people, girls and boys, who are victims of abuse of any kind.
A similar work, established in the late 1970's is San Miguel, Kurmond, N.S.W. San Miguel is a short term family crisis accommodation refuge owned and operated as a charitable work by the De La Salle Brothers. It offers families (women and/or men with children) a refuge from abusive and highly stressful situations for up to approximately 8 weeks. The 50 acre property is situated in a peaceful rural area and also serves as a healing environment - a place for some 'time-out' and healing, in mind, body and spirit.
Like Boys Town, Beaudesert, San Miguel Crisis Centre has attracted considerable support from charitable organizations, non-Catholic as well as Catholic. It has also been greatly assisted by special grants from the State Government of N. S. W. It continues to grow and, in a time of economic hardship such as the present, affords ready and much appreciated help to many families, parents, and children.
 Since 1983 the Brothers have devoted much of their resources to the Aboriginal Mission in the far north-western part of the continent. Balgo Hills is in the deep interior. Luurnpa Catholic School is for the children of Aboriginal people who still largely maintain their traditional style of life. http://www.users.bigpond.com/luurnpa/
Other works: BoysTown Link Up is a welfare and advocacy service, committed to developing and providing innovative programs to assist the most disadvantaged young people, aged between 17 and 25 years, in the community. This service is located in Logan City, South-East Queensland.
 Within the District of Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, we have had young people volunteering for a few years now in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and Balgo Hills Aboriginal school (Luurnpa Catholic School, Western Australia), San Miguel Family Centre (NSW), India and the Philippines.
(see http://vocym.org/)
For more information see our web site at: http://lasalle.org.au or the New Zealand site at: http://www.delasalle.org.nz |
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