Origins of the Parish
The famous “Y Plan” of the then National Capital Development Commission envisioned the development of Canberra through towns, based on town centres in Woden-Weston Creek, Belconnen and Tuggeranong, and later Gungahlin.Planning for the “town” of Tuggeranong began in 1969 with the first suburb, Kambah, being developed in 1973. The first families moved into Kambah in 1974 and Kambah parish was established in the same year with Fr Bill Kennedy as the first parish priest.
The first Mass in the parish was celebrated by Archbishop T. V. Cahill on 18 September 1976, in the Parish house at 13 Mackinnon Street, opposite the driveway to the basketball courts, or parking area for parishioners, adjacent to Mackillop College.
The house has now been demolished and replaced by two houses as a dual occupancy block.
The Parish Grows
St Anthony’s Parish Primary School began in 1978 in the buildings of Padua Catholic High School and as numbers grew in an annexe at Erindale College.The school itself was developed and built on its current site in Wheeler Crescent with classes starting there in mid-1982. The school was officially opened and blessed on 7 May 1983.
Holy Family Parish in Gowrie was established in 1984, and St Anthony’s parish boundaries were re-established (Wanniassa, Oxley and South-east Kambah). The boundaries were further extended to include Monash in 2005.
Father Monaghan finished his six-year term as parish priest in September 1982. For more detail of the early years of the parish, see Appendix A.
The parish’s second Parish Priest, Father Peter Quirk was a warm and outgoing pastor with extraordinary energy and drive and with a remarkable gift for remembering faces and names.
He was shaped by his early experience, leaving school at 16 to work for a number of years at the Tumut Dairy Cooperative before going back to school in his mid-20’s to gain his leaving Certificate and to undertake preliminary studies in Latin as a prelude to studying for the priesthood.
Before his appointment to Wanniassa, Father Quirk had served as assistant priest in a number of parishes and as pastor at Jindabyne for five years, where he became an enthusiastic skier and canoeist and an advocate generally for the region. As chaplain to Young Christian Workers groups in the mid to late 60’s, he was well known to the youth of Canberra especially the hostel dwellers who were a marked feature of the population of early Canberra. Before becoming a priest, he was a renowned rugby league footballer, a swift winger, representing Tumut and Gundagai clubs, playing in the Maher Cup competition and gaining selection in the Riverina side.
He brought this experience to his ministry at Wanniassa, including his love of football, with a great sense of the challenges facing people living their faith in the real world. Part of his legacy is the parish church, reflecting his vision of the church as a light to the wider world and as the centre of the life of the community.
Father Quirk served until cancer of the lung forced his resignation on 26 May 1996. Father Peter Cronin had been appointed parish administrator in April 1994 as Father Quirk’s illness progressed.
Father Cronin was appointed as parish priest in August 1997. Father Cronin was the first of two parish priests at St Anthony’s who were widowers– the second being Father Lachlan Coll.
Priests who have served the parish subsequently were:
- Father Mietek Markowicz installed as parish priest in July 2003;
- Father Lachlan Coll appointed as parish priest in July 2008;
- Father Tony Percy appointed parish priest in September 2019;
- Father Tom Thornton appointed parish priest in January 2023;
- Father Leonse Kurian appointed parish administrator in January 2025;
- Father John Armstrong installed as parish priest in April 2026.
Appendix A: The First Years
In 1976 Archbishop Thomas Cahill commissioned Father Gerry .....
Appendix E: Children's Liturgy
This began in our parish at the suggestion of Father Peter Quirk, who had been reading about its activity in other parishes. It was the mid-1980s and a group of young mothers, who also saw the need, took it on.
Children aged roughly from four to eight (when they receive their first Holy Communion) are invited to come downstairs to the meeting room after Father’s greeting. There we have an ‘altar’ set up with a crucifix and candle. We begin with a welcoming and an explanation of the theme of the day’s Mass, including where it fits in to the Liturgical Year. Then we have a Penitential Rite, which is aimed at the children’s level. An Acolyte reads the Gospel from the Children’s Bible and the presenter, who has prepared the Liturgy, explains the Gospel including a little of it’s background and relates it to the children. We have a children’s version of the Creed, then if we have time, an activity for ‘hands on’ instruction and a song. The children are escorted back to the main body of the church for the Offertory Procession. The number of children participating ranges from approximately 15 to 40 children.
Appendix F: Parish Administration
Parish Secretaries Marie Lemon, Lyn Mexon, Elizabeth Wilson
The Parish Pastoral Council shares the full range of the pastoral concerns of the Parish Priest. Its function is to advise and assist the Parish Priest and to lead and represent the whole Parish Community. The importance of the Parish Pastoral Council is emphasised by the fact that the only recommendation of the Diocesan Synod that was given force of a formal Decree was that each parish in the Archdiocese must have a Parish Pastoral Council.
The Finance Committee assists the priest in administering the financial affairs of the Parish, including the preparation of the Parish Budget each year and monitoring income and expenditure.
Rosters – cleaning, mowing, money counting