2014 – present
Manly Vale
Both Augustinian colleges in Australia in 2014 advance a further step in medium and long-term planning: Villanova College in Brisbane and St Augustine’s College in Sydney.
2014 The College has received development application (DA) approval from the Warringah Council for the construction of the new primary school and the refurbishment of the Mendel Wing. These projects went to tender in September 2014, construction began on 1 December 2014, and completion of the new facilities is scheduled in time for the beginning of the 2016 academic year.
2014 The next four-year 2018 Strategic Plan of Villanova College at Coorparoo in Brisbane was formally commissioned in front of the entire college community on Wednesday, 27th August 2014. The ceremony of commission followed a Mass in honour of Saint Monica, the mother of St Augustine. Villanova is an Augustinian upper primary and secondary college that began in 1948.
2015 On 7 February an Augustinian academic from the Philippines, Fr Czar Emmanuel OSA presented a seminar entitled The Concepts of Education in the Writings of Saint Augustine. It was given to the staff of St Augustine’s College. He also taught an intensive course at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
2015 The metal steeple was renovated on St Kieran’s Church in the Sydney suburb of Manly Vale. (Built in 1968 the church lies within the Parish of North Harbour, which is staffed by the Augustinians.) One advantage of the new steeple is that it is illuminated in the evenings.
2015 On Friday, 28 August the Augustinian Delegation of Korea celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of the arrival of the first Augustinians (two from the United Kingdom, and two from Australia) early in 1985. The Order began at a house in Seoul, since sold. The Order now has three communities in South Korea, all of them completely staffed by Korean-born Augustinians.
2016 The year saw the sixtieth year of the Order’s St Augustine’s College in Sydney (Brookvale). The College opened its doors in early February 1956 with seventy-four male students and two teaching Augustinian priests, and today enrols twelve hundred. A Mass of Thanksgiving and celebration took place at St Mary’s Cathedral in central Sydney on 25 February.
2016 A spiritual year called a novitiate is an early step for every man or woman joining Religious community life within the Roman Catholic Church. With separate Augustinian Jurisdictions based in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, West Papua, India and Australia, a far-sighted decision was made that new candidates from these nations should receive a common novitiate, language permitting. And so on 3 July 2016 the Asia Pacific Augustinian Novitiate (APAN) began at Mohon, Cebu, Philippines. Australia sent a candidate to participate.
2017 As Augustinians within the Asia Pacific region more consciously strive to work together in mission when and where possible, the Asia Pacific Augustinian Conference (APAC) reached its fortieth anniversary on 13 September, and held its thirteenth triennial convention at Cebu in the southern Philippines for its twenty official delegates, plus invited visitors.
2018 The day of 2 February was the seventieth anniversary of the opening of the first-ever Augustinian school in Australia; Villanova College began at its initial temporary site at Whinstanes, on the northern side of the Brisbane River. In 1954 the school then moved across the river to its present location at Coorparoo.
2018 On 24 February was the 180th anniversary of the arrival of (later Archbishop) James Alypius Goold in Australia. He came to Sydney as a volunteer priest, and ten years later was Bishop (later Archbishop) of Melbourne until his death there in 1886.
2019 The first community of the Order in Vietnam was established. Frs. Michael Sullivan, Hoàng Minh Tân and Trần Kim Phú composed the first community.
2019 The Order of St Augustine (Augustinians) have undertaken pastoral care of St Joseph’s Parish in the Melbourne suburb of South Yarra since 1975. The parish has a second medium-sized church, named in memory of St Thomas Aquinas, at Brumby Street, South Yarra. Built in 1915 and containing some pre-1950s electrical wiring and fixtures, etc, the church was closed for major renovations during seven weeks in January and February 2019.
2019 The Holy Spirit Parish in the outer Sydney suburb of St Clair (in the Diocese of Parramatta) has now been in the pastoral care of the Augustinians for twenty-four years. The Social Justice Commission of the Parish partnered with the Sydney Social Justice Alliance on the plight of asylum seekers and in the promotion of renewable energy sources. Regarding the latter issue, the parish commission worked used solar panels to reduce electricity costs. The parish church’s electricity meter connected to the public electricity grid now registers net zero usage most days of the year.
2020 The Order’s St Augustine’s College-Sydney recommissioned the Goold Building on the 31st January 2020. The building houses 21 general learning classrooms, specialist natural light filled Art studios, Music rooms, indoor outdoor Senior study areas, an amphitheatre, auditorium, open flexible library spaces panning over three levels and an outdoor barbeque terrace on the top floor.
2020 The Order’s Villanova College in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo in August moved into the St Thomas of Villanova Learning Centre, which has three extensive levels. Villanova has Middle School and High School sections, and both have space allocated them in the new building.