Sr Karen Muir RSJ says the transfer of ownership of St Joseph’s Convent, Goulburn, to its new owners, Southern Cross Care, is a welcome one. Source: Catholic Voice.
Each year, between Christmas and New Year, the young Sisters of Saint Joseph would return to Goulburn.
They slept in the old boarding dormitories upstairs at St Joseph’s Convent, gathering after a year spent teaching in country towns across the region.
“We’d have concerts, we’d have dances, we’d go out to the school hall and put music on and dance,” Sr Karen recalled, smiling at the memory.
“We’d have movies. We just had a lovely time together, where you reflected on the year you’d had and told the stories. It was just lovely. This was the mother house. This is where we all belonged.”
Now, after more than 140 years of Josephite presence on Lagoon Street, the convent has entered a new era. Ownership of the historic site was formally transferred to Southern Cross Care (NSW and ACT) on January 21.
For Sr Karen, who lived in the convent for nearly 12 years across different periods of her life, the transition is welcome.
“I feel a lot of gratitude,” she said. “Gratitude that this was here and that it was our home, and gratitude too that we have found a way forward. I’m just delighted that it’s not going to stand empty. It’s still got a purpose.”
The Sisters of Saint Joseph first arrived in Goulburn in August 1882, beginning a legacy that would shape education, parish life and pastoral care across the region.
Over the decades, hundreds of sisters passed through the convent, teaching in primary and secondary schools, running a boarding school for country girls, visiting the sick, working in parish ministry and prison chaplaincy.
At the nearby St Joseph’s Primary School, the sisters’ presence remains woven into daily life.
Principal Matthew Mullins said their charism continues to guide the school’s mission.
“We always say, ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’ We know where that came from,” he said.
FULL STORY
‘This was the mother house’: St Joseph’s Convent begins a new chapter (By Veronika Cox, Catholic Voice)
