Strong support

St Vincent’s Convent Potts Point, NSW, ca 1940-ca 1955. Courtesy of the Congregational Archives of the Sisters of Charity of Australia.

Tarmons, Woolloomooloo, Sydney, Residence of Sir Maurice O'Connell (1845). G.E. Peacock. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

[Sydney from Woolloomooloo], 1849. G.E. Peacock. Painted from the house Tarmons. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Tarmons

Education and Engagement Coordinator, Dr Allison O’Sullivan

One of the challenges faced by the five Sisters of Charity who arrived in Sydney in 1838 was to secure accommodation for themselves and for their work. Their first permanent convent was St Mary’s in Parramatta which was convenient for their work at the nearby female factory, but when this closed in 1848 after the end of transportation the Sisters decided to re-concentrate their efforts in Sydney. In 1856 the Sisters purchased the stately Tarmons at Potts Point on Gadigal Country.

Tarmons was built by Sir Maurice O’Connell on land he purchased in 1838. Sir Maurice’s wife, Lady Mary O’Connell was the daughter of Governor William Bligh and it’s easy to imagine that she had some say in the construction and furnishing of their grand mansion overlooking the water. While in residence Sir Maurice acted as the Governor between the terms of Governors Gipps and FitzRoy (1845-6). When Sir Maurice died suddenly at Tarmons in 1848 Lady O’Connell returned to Europe and the house was sold to Sir Charles Nicholson, who converted the O’Connell’s grand ballroom into a library for his extensive collection of books. When Sir Charles returned to England in 1855 Tarmons became available to purchase.

The Sisters were highly regarded by colonists and convicts of many faiths and their work was described in the newspaper in 1855 as the “Love of God made even more perfect by the love of His creatures.” The Sisters had already begun their fundraising to purchase Tarmons when on Monday 26 November 1855 a meeting was held in the Hall of St Mary’s Seminary and a resolution passed to raise £5000 to aid the Sisters in reaching their goal:

Already, by the united and combined contributions from all classes of all religious denominations, a sufficient sum had been collected to defray a moiety of the total amount, £10,000…It is a disgrace to us the inhabitants of Sydney that we have not hitherto presented them with a residence…Hitherto our exertions have not been sufficiently extensive, but we feel our hope will not be frustrated, and that the inhabitants of all of Sydney will come forward and join us cordially, and cooperate with us in completing the money required for the purchase of Tarmons as a residence for the Sisters of Charity, and a free hospital under their care. (Sydney Morning Herald, 28 November 1855)

Sir Charles himself donated £1000 to the cause and strong support from the community saw the Sisters’ hopes fulfilled. In 1857 they were able to open the first St Vincent’s hospital at Potts Point. The next year the Sisters also opened a school for poor children in the building, and when St Vincent’s moved to its current location in Darlinghurst in 1870 the school expanded, eventually becoming St Vincent’s Ladies’ College which is now the oldest continually running private girls’ school in Australia.

Unfortunately, the original Tarmons building had deteriorated and in the 1960s it was demolished to build a new convent for the Sisters, which in turn was repurposed as boarding facilities for St Vincent's students in the 1990s. Traces of Tarmons remain however, in the Nicholson collection of books at the Mitchell Library, once housed in the ballroom, and the original key to Tarmons preserved and displayed at the Heritage Centre which now stands directly adjacent to the Sisters’ Chapel and the site of Tarmons itself.

While the house may be gone its history and legacy is all around us, and we can contemplate its importance to the mission and ministries of the Sisters of Charity in Australia through the memories contained in these images and objects.