Sts Patrick and Brigid, Cooranbong

In 1861 Edward Silas Taylor constructed a timber building for community use. It was used as a church and non-vested national school. The Brown Sisters of St Joseph commenced classes in the building on Easter Monday 1880. With the building been eaten away by white ants, a new brick church was built on the same site in 1904. St Patrick & St Brigid Catholic Church, Cooranbong was blessed and opened by The Most Rev Dr Kelly, Coadjutor Archbishop of Sydney in1906. Cooranbong had been part of several parishes in the Archdiocese of Sydney, in 1947 it was part of Morisset Parish. Morisset Parish was transferred to the Diocese of Maitland in 1966.

The convent of the Sisters of St Joseph was not far from the church. Mary MacKillop visited the convent on at least two occasions in April and May 1895. Mother Mary Mackillop’s visits were dedicated and marked as a pilgrimage site on 19 May 2015 with the installation of two plaques to commemorate the 120th Anniversary by Australia’s first Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop.