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Archives of the Pallottine Fathers and Brothers - Australian Region

The Archives consists of records, images and artefacts concerning the Pallottines.

Pallottine Archivist
60 Fifth Avenue, Rossmoyne WA 6148
Tel: +61 8 9354 0208
Fax: +61 8 9457 0532
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

History of the Archives

In their present form, the Archives of the Pallottine Fathers & Brothers- Australian Region are of recent origin. Prior to the formation of the Archives files that were regarded of some historical values were stored in boxes after their usefulness in the office filing cabinet came to an end. There were records of property transactions, meetings, contracts, conferences, letters from past members, from Rome etc, all just lumped together as they came out of the office cabinets. Pope John Paul II described archives as places of memory of the Christian community and storehouses of culture for the new evangelisation. He emphasised that the various religious authorities have a responsibility which they cannot ignore; they should preserve both ancient archives and current records.

In the early 1990s Br Wim van Veen had been given the task of collating the history of Tardun. In 1997 Fr Kelvin Kenny SAC was appointed as Archivist, to try to establish some sort of order in the documents that were accumulating in all Pallottine houses around Australia.

The Pallottines had come to Australia in 1901 to take over the Trappist missions to the Aboriginal people of Beagle Bay in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In 1935 the Pallottine superior was appointed Bishop. Thus he was both the superior of the Pallottines in Australia and Vicar Apostolic of the Kimberley. When Broome became a diocese, all earlier records held in Broome became Diocesan records and part of the Diocesan archives. The material in this archives dates from the early 30’s when the Society established it’s a community in Kew, Victoria. The Australian Region was promulgated in November 1946 and Kew was the headquarters. The Regional headquarters moved to Rossmoyne, Western Australia in 1984 and back to Kew in 2014.

The main collection is controlled from the rear of the Epiphany Hall at 60 Fifth Avenue, Rossmoyne. There are parts of the collection that reside at Pallotti College, Box Hill, Kew, and at other houses in the west.

Sr Brigida Nialon CSB has published the history of the Pallottines in Australia under the title ‘Nothing is wasted in the household of God’.

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