St Ita’s Convent and School
When a convent school was required in Stockinbingal, a 5 acre site was acquired in 1910 from Mr John Neville, for the purpose of building a Catholic school, convent, larger church and presbytery. A foundation stone for the church/school and convent was laid in December 1911, by Bishop Gallagher, where a further £395 was raised. The new brick church/school and convent were built by Mr Anderson, and were blessed and opened in February 1913, by the Bishop. The church building served the purpose of both school and church, which had two folding dividers to turn it into three classrooms for a school, plus a verandah along the northern side. The internal dividers were opened up, and desks moved aside each week, for Sunday mass, only to be put back again in time for Monday’s school lessons. The convent school was initially named St Joseph’s, but this soon changed to St Ita’s. The Sisters of Mercy, under the leadership of Mother Phillip Quigley, opened the school in February 1913 with an enrolment of 80 pupils, which was around half the children of the village! Enrollment had doubled by the end of the year, mainly due to the influx of workers, and their families, building the Forbes railway line. In 1928, the convent was modified for use as a girls’ boarding school, when louvered dormitory sleep outs were added to each side of the building. In the 1940s, extensive additions were made to the dormitory and dining areas to cope with extra girls, due to war evacuation from the coast. When first planned, the land between the convent and church/school was supposed to be for the building of a full Catholic school, but a dwindling population and shortage of religious teaching staff saw the school close at the end of 1959. The old convent property was subdivided from the church land in the early 1960s, and sold for use as a private residence.
