| LOCATION |
| Map |
Show Map
|
| Address |
College Road SEVENHILL |
| Locality |
|
| Accuracy |
L - low level confidence |
| Council Area |
Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council |
| Polygon Type |
B - Building footprint |
| DESCRIPTION |
| Details (Known As) |
Sevenhill Complex, comprising St Aloysius Catholic Church, St Aloysius College, Sevenhill Cellars, Shrines, Weikert House (Ruin), Smithy/Dairy (Ruin) and Sevenhill Cemetery |
| Registered Name |
Sevenhill Complex, comprising St Aloysius Catholic Church, St Aloysius College, Sevenhill Cellars and Sevenhill Cemetery |
| Significance |
The Sevenhill complex is a significant group of buildings reflecting the settlement of this area of the Clare valley by a group of Jesuits in the early 1850s. Their settlement paved the way for the development of viticulture and wine making in the region. The St Aloysius Catholic Church is an important element in the architectural development of Gothic revival buildings in South Australia.
The Sevenhill complex has several layers of historic importance beyond the immediate vicinity. It was from this place that most of what is presently the Diocese of Port Pirie was founded. As European farming settlement extended north of Clare after the Strangways Act, some thirty stone Catholic churches and twenty-seven schools were built throughout the mid-north under the direction of Jesuit priests who either resided at St Aloysius' College or who were acting under the direction of the Superior of the Mission whose residence was in the old College.
St Aloysius' College operated as a boarding school from 1856 to 1886, and some 450 boys were educated there in that period. It was the first Catholic secondary school in the colony, and until the early 1880s was the only Catholic boarding school for boys in the colony. For a period it was the only Catholic boarding school for boys in Australia. It also acted as a seminary for the training of diocesan priests, and Father Julian Tenison Woods and Archbishop Christopher Reynolds undertook priestly studies there. It also acted as a novitiate house of studies for Australian candidates seeking to become Jesuits, including Donald MacKillop, brother to Mary MacKillop.
The Sevenhill College was a centre from which the priests undertook horseback pastoral journeys as far north as Blinman and Moolooloo, and around to Port Lincoln. From Sevenhill was founded the Northern Territory Mission where nineteen Jesuits worked for twenty years from 1882 to 1901 on the Daly River, the first Europeans in that region.
Sevenhill was the first Cellars in the Clare Valley and Rhine Riesling was introduced to the district by the Jesuits.
The Sevenhill cemetery is the place of burial for pioneers of the district, some of the last of the indigenous people, and various identities associated with the district, including two of the first women to join Mary MacKillop as Sisters of St Joseph. The crypt below the Church contains the remains of those pioneer Austro-Hungarian Fathers and Brothers. There are shrines and ruins on the property of importance (e.g. the Weikert house where Mary MacKillop is believed to have stayed on numbers of occasions).
From Sevenhill a further six Jesuit Residences (usually consisting of two priests and a Brother) were established at Manoora, Burra, Port Pirie, Georgetown, Jamestown and Norwood in Adelaide. All in all, some sixty-one Jesuits associated with the Austro-Hungarian Province, either as men sent from Europe or a small number who entered the Jesuit Order locally, laboured in South Australia between 1848 and 1901 when Irish Jesuits assumed control. Until this time, Sevenhill was the centre for the activities of these Jesuits. (HSA Assessment Report 5/2001) |
| Subject Index |
Religion - Church (Christian); Manufacturing and processing - Winery; Residential - House; Religion - Seminary; Cemeteries and burial sites - Cemetery |
| Class |
State |
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| STATUS |
| Status Code |
REG - Confirmed as a State Heritage Place in the SA Heritage Register |
| Status Date |
08-NOV-2001 |
| REFERENCE |
| LGA |
Clare and Gilbert Valleys |
| State Heritage ID |
13056 |
| Heritage Number |
14494 |
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| SECTION 16 INFORMATION |
| Section 16 |
a - it demonstrates important aspects of the evolution or pattern of the State's history
b - it has rare, uncommon or endangered qualities that are of cultural significance
e - it demonstrates a high degree of creative, aesthetic or technical accomplishment or is an outstanding representative of particular construction techniques or design characteristics
f - it has strong cultural or spiritual associations for the community or a group within it
g - it has a special association with the life or work of a person or organisation or an event of historical importance
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| PLAN PARCEL & TITLE |
| As listed in the SA Heritage Register |
| Plan Parcel & Title Information |
CT 5672/737 F208259 Q6,7,CT 5672/737 F208259 A5 |