At St Augustine's College, we recognise the First Nations Peoples of Australia. We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which our College is located and where we conduct our business, the Yagara peoples. We pay our respects to ancestors and Elders, past, present and emerging. St Augustine's College is committed to honouring Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and seas and their rich contribution to Australian society, and our College community.
The first humans to occupy the land we call Springfield were the Jagera people. Europeans did not venture through this area until a track, known as “Old Logan Road”, was made from Goodna through to the Logan area to run cattle to the Redbank Meatworks. In 1859, James Josey began buying up land in the present Springfield area, naming his property “Eden Station” after the ship on which he was transported from England to Australia. The property remained in the family for many years before passing to Moreton Shire Council in 1937. It was purchased by the Springfield Land Corporation in 1991. The site for St Augustine’s College was part of the Redbank Plains Golf Course and is now in the suburb of Augustine Heights.
In the late 1990’s a Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) Strategic Perspectives study identified the Springfield area as an educational growth area. BCE personnel took the initiative of approaching the Parish of Goodna and the Ministry Coordinator assigned to the Springfield area, with a view to providing a new Catholic school for the area. A Steering Committee consisting of local parents and personnel from St Francis Xavier School, the parish at Goodna and the Brisbane Catholic Education Centre was formed.
The College was named St Augustine’s in recognition of the work and presence of the Augustinian order of priests. Three of the four House teams at the College are named after significant people or places in our history – Jagera, Josey, MacKillop (after Australia’s first saint and founder of St Francis Xavier Primary school in nearby Goodna) and Cascia, named after a significant Augustinian saint, St Rita of Cascia.
Foundation Principal, Leon Capra, was appointed in April 2002 with Head of Secondary, Peter O’Connor, appointed in June of that year. By December 2002, twenty six staff including full and part time teachers, administrative staff and school officers, and grounds staff were appointed. Staff commenced moving in the new facilities on 8 January 2003, and the College officially commenced on 28 January with 170 students including 35 Year 8 students, 100 students from Years 1 – 5 and 35 preschool students.
The College was blessed by the Most Rev Archbishop John Bathersby, Archbishop of Brisbane on Sunday 31 August 2003. It was officially opened by the Honourable Anna Bligh, then State Minister for Education and former Premier of Queensland, as well as Senator Santo Santoro, Senator for Queensland on the same day.
The Master Planned site has seven planned stages, the last of which was completed in 2011. In 2010, the College also received very significant one off funds under the Federal Government Building the Education Revolution, enabling us to construct the Augustine Centre, complete two large covered assembly areas and shade structures on the oval and bus bay.