St Joseph’s Convent School

The first school building was a galvanised iron structure attached to the eastern side of the tin church in Irwin St. It had previously been used as a school room at the Strawberry siding and shifted to Mingenew in 1931. It opened in 1932 as St Joseph’s Convent School, staffed by three Sisters from the Dominican teaching order. They endured hard living conditions, working inside this school wearing their long flowing heavy twill habits and tight-fitting headwear during the long summers without any form of cooling. Outside of school hours the Sisters taught music to many local children.
The sisters lived in a mud brick house on the corner of Victoria and Irwin St. until a substantial brick house was built for them in 1954 on the east side of the church.
By 1948 a new one room school was built in William St. and with increasing numbers two additional classrooms were added in 1954 and 1963. By this time there were 86 pupils at the school. From 1979 until the school closed in 1991 it was staffed by lay teachers. The building is now occupied as a private residence.