Cumberland Place

The Cumberland Place School was established in 1897 by the Sister’s of St. Joseph to teach the poorest of the poor. It was commonly known as the Catholic Poor School (also called the Syrian School). 

In 1897 Mary MacKillop and Sister Gertrude Hayman opened the school in a two-roomed cottage in Cumberland place, located behind the Providence on La Trobe Street. The school was supported financially by Archbishop Thomas Carr who shared Mary MacKillop’s passion for education for the poor. 

Children were accepted no matter their religion or their ability to pay fees. The children who attended the school were from diverse backgrounds including Chinese, Indian, Syrian, French Italian and Australian. It provided basic education for children from the nearby slums until 1926. 

The cottage was demolished in 1978. The street was also demolished, but Cumberland Place once ran east-west, parallel to La Trobe and Little Lonsdale streets, in the north-east corner of the city, on the edge of a precinct in Melbourne known as “Little Lon”.