Penola Station homestead

 

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Slab Homestead.

Mary MacKillop celebrated her nineteenth birthday on 15 January 1861 in the Penola Station homestead owned by Alexander Cameron, who was one of the first settlers in the district. This building is the original section of that homestead.

Her aunt Margaret (nee MacKillop) was Alexander's wife, and Mary had moved from Melbourne to work for the family as a governess. It was the Cameron family who introduced Mary to Father Julian Tenison Woods, the man who nurtured her dream to devote herself 'to poor children...in some very poor Order'.

The slab homestead originally overlooked a lagoon on Old Penola Estate, but was removed in 1970 by the Rymill family who had purchased the property in 1900.

Conscious of its significance to the local area, the family took detailed plans of the original building and numbered every section before storing it in pieces inside a woolshed for the next 40 years.

When Old Penola Estate was sold in late 2008, the Rymill family donated the slab homestead to the Catholic Church and the people of Penola. The building was reconstructed on this site to enable pilgrims and the wider community to gain a greater insight into Mary MacKillop's life, and celebrate an important link to the region's forebears.

Be inspired by Mary MacKillop's journey along the early path to sainthood

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