A refurbishment of Mary MacKillop Cottage, which sits in the grounds of St Patrick’s Church, has been topped off with the installation of information panels bringing to life its history and the work of the woman after whom it is named.
Unveiled recently, the three panels tell the story of Mary MacKillop — declared Australia’s first saint in 2010 — who visited and stayed in the cottage in the late 1890s while setting up and supporting Catholic schools in Otago.
St Patrick’s parishioner Susan Rowley said over 1000 school children, and many tourists visited the cottage each year, yet information about its history had been sitting in clear files on a table.
Lakes District Museum educators wanted the information to be better presented, so it would hold the children’s attention, Ms Rowley said.
"We also wanted to create a more memorable experience for visitors overall by combining images and written detail."
Sister Mary, who founded the congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in Australia in 1866, brought sisters to New Zealand to educate working-class children in isolated areas.
They ran a school in Arrowtown from 1897 to 1943, and Sr Mary stayed in the cottage during frequent visits to New Zealand from 1894 to 1902.
Built in about 1870, the stone cottage is listed with Heritage NZ as a category 2 historic place.
Thought to have originally been a miner’s home, it was then variously a convent, part of the school and then a storeroom before being restored in 1994.
Ms Rowley said the exterior of the cottage had been badly in need of repainting and its chimney was in disrepair.
The refurbishment was a joint project between St Patrick’s parishioners, the museum, the Queenstown Historical Society and the Sisters of Saint Joseph Aotearoa NZ, which provided the funding.
The information for the panels was mainly compiled by museum and historical society stalwart Denise Heckler, along with Ms Rowley and fellow parishioner Jane-Louise Cook.
The cottage was usually open for viewing daily from 10am to 4pm.
