HOME OF COMPASSION BROKEN HILL In Piper Street stands a building that was once home to the city's orphans, old age invalids and the women who looked after them, the Sisters of Compassion. The Home of Compassion, as it was known, has been empty for more than a year and is now being sold by the Catholic aged care organisation, Southern Cross Homes. The 99-year-old building has an interesting history. It was built for a mine manager, bought by the first Broken Hill-born Bishop and given to an order of nuns from New Zealand which had been founded by a French woman under the direction of a Saint. According to the Church, Saint John Marie Vianney, The Cure of Ars, not only foretold the founding of the Order but also described to a young Frenchwoman, Suzanne Aubert (1835-1926), the building that would become the first Home of Compassion. Miss Aubert became Mother Mary Joseph and founded The Sisters of Compassion in New Zealand in 1892. E.F. Woodman, in his book "The Catholic Church in Broken Hill 1883 to 1983", says: "On entering the home the visitor is struck by the prominence of a statue of Saint John Marie Vianney, The Cure of Ars, but this is not surprising as the Cure exerted great influence on the life of Mother Mary Joseph Aubert who founded the order in New Zealand. "In fact he foretold not only that Suzanne Aubert would leave France, travel to New Zealand and commence the work for which they are now famous, but also told her that the venture would twice fail before permanent success was achieved and even described to her in detail the house that was to become the first Home of Compassion." The Sisters came to Broken Hill at the invitation of Bishop Thomas Martin Fox of the Diocese of Wilcannia-Forbes, a Broken Hill boy who was educated by the Sisters of Mercy and later by the Marist Brothers in Adelaide. Bishop Fox met the Sisters of Compassion in New Zealand in early 1940 and later that year the they arrived in Broken Hill and took up the running of the orphanage at the Convent in Lane Street. St Anne's Orphanage, the city's first, had been started by the Sisters of Mercy in 1898. A few months after the arrival of the Sisters of Compassion, Bishop Fox bought three cottages in Eyre Street and a large house immediately behind them in Piper Street and in early 1941 the Sisters of Compassion, with 21 girls from the orphanage, moved into their new home, St Anne's Home of Compassion. The Piper Street house was built in 1902 for the manager of the Central Mine, James Hebbard, who has a street named after him in South Broken Hill. The work of the Sisters in Broken Hill is described in a book written for their centenary in 1992, "Audacity of Faith". "The Sisters did everything to provide for children and the elderly - they nursed the sick, cooked the meals, did the washing, the housework, the gardening ... sewed late into the night making clothes for the girls. "The miners were always very generous and for many years the Sisters were allocated a day when they could go to the (Zinc) mine on the workers' pay day and the men would open their envelopes, most making a contribution to the Home of Compassion." The Sisters ran the home of Compassion from the original site until the mid-1960s when the cottages were demolished and the Apex Club built an annexe on the Eyre Street side for the old folk. Eventually lay nursing staff were recruited and the Piper Street building continued to be used until 1984 when the nuns left the city. It then became the administration centre for Southern Cross Homes. The ornate Federation era building with its wide verandah and stained glass windows has been vacant since the adminstration office was moved last year into the building formerly occupied by Community Health in Eyre Street. The annexe in Eyre Street remains as a home for the elderly. The work of the Sisters of Compassion continues to this day in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga. |
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| Mother Aubert The original Home was three houses in Eyre Street |
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