Foundations
Subiaco, Western Australia 1897
Following the departure of two Sisters to attend to the health of the minors in the Goldfields, the six remaining Sisters in Perth were busily establishing a permanent home for the Congregation. The emerging municipality of Subiaco was the site chosen. The gift of seven acres of land determined the site for the hospital and Convent. The site is part of the parcel of land granted to the diocese in 1846-7 and occupied by Spanish Benedictine monks 1851-62.
Subiaco convent was to be the "mother house" for the Congregation in the diocese of Perth. It also became the Novitiate, and the place of rest and recreation for Sisters in transit to and from ministries at other locations.
Subsequently Subiaco became the residence of the Province leadership and the location for the Western Australian Institute of the Holy Spirit for formation and renewal of religious in post Vatican 11 Church.
Founded in 1898, Subiaco Hospital is the oldest surviving St John of God Health Hospital facility in Australia. The opening ceremony saw a gathering of Perth's leaders, and reflected the inter-faith approach that was to characterize all the undertakings of Sisters of St John of God in Australia.
Sister Celilia Dunne was the first Community Leader and Matron of the new hospital at Subiaco. Over the years almost all members of the Sisters of St John of God congregation in Australia worked at Subiaco Hospital; some for just a few weeks, others have spent their entire working life at Subiaco.
In a series of expansions and almost continual redevelopment there has been a steady progression from the original simple wooden 18 bed hospital to the present technically sophisticated facility of the 21st century.
Today's St John of God Hospital, Subiaco is a great testimony to the foresight, wisdom and organizational abilities of successive generations of Sisters, working in partnership with doctors and lay colleagues to promote wholistic health & healing.
Sr Mary Spellman
Present local leader
