The name MacKillop relates to the history of this campus and the adjacent convent buildings in Mount Street. Mary MacKillop founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph in South Australia in 1866 and she moved to a cottage in Mount Street in the 1880s.
In 1913 the Sisters established a training school at North Sydney for the teacher training of the Sisters of Saint Joseph. In 1958 lay students were admitted to the College, which in 1971 became the Catholic Teachers College and was administered by a council responsible to the Archdiocese of Sydney. In 1982 this College became part of the Catholic College of Education Sydney. It was at this stage that the name MacKillop was given to this campus to identify it as a discrete part of the College and to recognise the ongoing support of the Sisters of St. Joseph.
In 1988, when the Carroll Building was completed, the opportunity was taken to name various sections of the building after people who had been involved in the development of the Catholic Teachers College. Mother Leone Ryan, RSJ, whose name was given to the Auditorium, taught in the original St. Joseph’s Training School in the 1940s and then, as Congregational Leader, was responsible for the planning of the Catholic Teachers College. Sister Isobel Menton, RSJ, whose name was given to the Student Common Room, was the first principal of the Catholic Teachers College. Bill McGrath, was the first lay principal.
Reverend Monsignor John Slowey, after whom the Council Room is named, was the Director of Catholic Education in Sydney. Dr Victor Couch, after whom the Library is named, was the foundation Chairman of the Catholic College of Education Sydney. They were both foundation members of the Catholic Teachers College Council and instrumental in its development.
The Mary MacKillop Chapel in Mount Street is open for private prayer each day and for Mass at 1pm on Wednesdays.
Mary MacKillop believed that we should never see an need without trying to do something about it, so hopefully her enthusiastic love of life and of all people may influence the lives of all students and staff on the North Sydney Campus (MacKillop) and at ACU.
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