2008 – 2013

2008 The ninth Augustinian International Encounter for Young Adults took place in Sydney, Australia on 21st – 27th July 2008. A total of 290 young adults and male and female Augustinians participated. This was the first Augustinian International Encounter held outside of Europe. This happened during the week after World Youth Day, which event most of the AYE participants had also attended.

2008 In July and August the wood carvings of Bro. Gregory Fitzgerald OSA, the second Australian-born member of the Order, was made a museum display in Moree, New South Wales, where Greg had been a cattleman property early last century. On 23rd-25th October representatives of those involved in leadership and ministry in the five Augustinian parishes in Australia – Mareeba/Dimbulah, Coorparoo, North Harbour, St Clair and South Yarra – gathered at the Chevalier Resource Centre, Kensington, NSW for the conference Building the City of God – Augustinian Parishes Planning for the Future.

On 18th October the Villanova Players celebrated their 60th anniversary. One of the co-founders of the Villanova Players was the late Fr John Louis Hanrahan O.S.A., who at that time was a staff member at Villanova College, Coorparoo.

2010 Participants at the 4th Augustinian National Lay Congress will ponder the Christian call to spirituality in the 21st century. The Congress was held at Villanova College in Coorparoo (Brisbane) on 2nd-4th July 2010.

2010 Celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the OSA in South Korea took place on the first weekend of October, and brought back to Korea three of the first four priests that the Augustinians sent there in 1985 (two from England, and two from Australia).

2011 June: The Parish of St Thomas of Villanova in Mareeba has been staffed by the Order of Saint Augustine since it began almost a century ago. Mareeba is located on the tableland behind the tropical tourist city of Cairns, in northern Queensland, Australia. It is part of the Diocese of Cairns. The Mareeba Parish is celebrating its centenary year.

2011 October: Book launch of the illustrated book, “Grace Chapel – Augustinian Sacred Space,” edited by Fr Laurence Mooney OSA, took place at St Augustine’s College in Brookvale on 21st October 2011.

2013 Celebrations for the 175th anniversary of continuous Augustinian presence in Australia.

2013 Centenary celebrations of St James’s Parish in Coorparoo (Brisbane).

2013 An Augustinian Justice and Peace Symposium was conducted by the Australian Augustinian Province on 5th-7th July, using the commodious assembly hall at the Order’s Sydney College, St Augustine’s College (Brookvale).

2013 Fr Tony Banks O.S.A. (Provincial) elected to the Augustinian General Curia in Rome.

2013 Fr Peter Hayes O.S.A. has written an illustrated book explaining the architectural features of St James’s Church in Coorparoo. The book “The Basilican Church of St James, Coorparoo—A Pastor and His Church” was launched on Sunday, 24th November.

2013 5th National Congress for Augustinian Laity, Villanova College, Coorparoo, Brisbane

2014 The College has received development application (DA) approval from the Warringah Council for the construction of the new primary school and the refurbishment of the Mendel Wing. These projects went to tender in September 2014, construction began on 1 December 2014, and completion of the new facilities is scheduled in time for the beginning of the 2016 academic year.

2014 The next four-year 2018 Strategic Plan of Villanova College at Coorparoo in Brisbane was formally commissioned in front of the entire college community on Wednesday, 27th August 2014. The ceremony of commission followed a Mass in honour of Saint Monica, the mother of St Augustine. Villanova is an Augustinian upper primary and secondary college that began in 1948.

2015 On 7 February an Augustinian academic from the Philippines, Fr Czar Emmanuel OSA presented a seminar entitled The Concepts of Education in the Writings of Saint Augustine. It was given to the staff of St Augustine’s College. He also taught an intensive course at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.

2015 The metal steeple was renovated on St Kieran’s Church in the Sydney suburb of Manly Vale. (Built in 1968 the church lies within the Parish of North Harbour, which is staffed by the Augustinians.) One advantage of the new steeple is that it is illuminated in the evenings.