From the Murray to the Sea: The History of Catholic Education in the Ballarat Diocese

When the Irish came to the Australian gold rush in the 1850s, they brought their faith with them. Here, Blee describes how the Irish Catholics of the Ballarat diocese succeeded in educating their children and maintaining active communities of faith in a brand-new country with some decidedly different notions on society, religion, and politics. She starts with the tent-schools erected to teach the children of the gold miners, the schools created to keep Catholics Catholic, and especially the tenacious work of the teaching nuns and brothers (and for that matter, their bishops) in what must have been arduous and often heartbreaking times. She traces the development of the education of Ballarat Catholics up to the present day, which seems to require just as much hard work while being met with acceptance and even support. Distributed in the US by ISBS. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR