Our Lady of Assumption Convent, Warwick 1.47

Our Lady of Assumption Convent is a heritage-listed former Roman Catholic convent at 8 Locke Street, Warwick, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Simkin & Ibler and built from 1891 to 1914. It is also known as Assumption College, Cloisters, and Sophia College. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.HistoryThe former Our Lady of the Assumption Convent was built in 1892-3 as the second convent of the Sisters of Mercy in Warwick. Additions in 1904 completed the original plans of Brisbane architects, Simkin and Ibler.The township of Warwick was declared a municipality in 1861, and prior to this was a developed centre of Darling Downs agriculture with the first land sales in 1850, and the establishment of the Horse and Jockey Inn in December 1848. In 1854 Roman Catholic services, like many other religious and social gatherings held in Warwick, began in the Horse and Jockey Inn. Father McGinty, one of only two Catholic priests in Queensland, travelled from Ipswich to celebrate mass. In 1862, Warwick became a separate parish of the church and Dr John Cani was appointed as the parish priest.An order of the Sisters of Mercy was founded in Warwick on October 29, 1874, thirteen years after the Sisters first arrived in Queensland, from Ireland with Bishop James Quinn. The Warwick community was the fifth branch house that the Sisters of Mercy established in Queensland, from the mother house at All Hallows' in Brisbane. The Sisters acquired their first convent in a brick cottage at the corner of Albion and Percy Streets, Warwick, and immediately took over the running of the catholic school, operated by the Missus O'Mara since 1867.