Catholic education in Australia

Catholic education in Australia refers to the education services provided by the Roman Catholic Church in Australia within the Australian education system. From 17th century foundations, the Catholic education system has grown to be the second biggest sector after government schools in Australia, with more than 650 000 students and around 21 per cent of all secondary school enrolments. The Catholic Church has established primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions in Australia.

Many Catholic schools in Australia are connected to the Internet via Catholic Education Network (CEnet).

The permanent presence of Catholicism in Australia came with the arrival of the First Fleet of British convict ships at Sydney in 1788. The first schools in Australia were Christian schools established by the Church of England in the early days of British settlement in the late 1700s. Free "charity schools" run by other denominations gradually came into existence later. One-tenth of all the convicts who came to Australia on the First Fleet were Catholic and at least half of them were born in Ireland. A small proportion of British marines were also Catholic. Some of the Irish convicts had been transported to Australia for political crimes or social rebellion in Ireland, so the authorities were suspicious of the minority church for the first three decades of settlement. Catholic convicts were compelled to attend Church of England services and their children and orphans were raised by the authorities as Anglicans. The first Catholic priest colonists arrived in Australia as convicts in 1800 – convicted for "complicity" in the Irish 1798 Rebellion. The Irish led Castle Hill Rebellion of 1804 alarmed the British authorities and the priests permission to celebrate Mass was revoked. Priests were not officially permitted to travel to the colony until 1820.

The absence of a Catholic mission in Australia before 1818 reflected the legal disabilities of Catholics in Britain and the difficult position of Ireland within the British Empire, but by 1833, there were around ten Catholic schools in the Australian colonies. The Church of England lost its legal privileges in the Colony of New South Wales following the Church Act of 1836. Drafted by the Catholic attorney-general John Plunkett, the act established legal equality for Anglicans, Catholics and Presbyterians and was later extended to Methodists.

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