The Christian Brothers in Tasmania : a portrait, 1911-1988

This thesis seeks to paint a portrait of the members of the communities of Christian Brothers who taught and worked in Tasmania from 1911-1988. It examines some aspects of the Brothers: their backgrounds, their style of community life in Tasmania, their studies and their relationships with the official Catholic Church. It does not examine their work as educators, nor their schools. This has been partially done by others, James Brophy in his history, St. Patrick's College, Launceston, 1919-1991 and Tim Jetson, St. Virgil's College, 1911-1994. The sources used for this thesis have almost entirely been of Christian Brothers' origin. These have been biographies of Brothers, Annals of the Brothers' Houses, a diary of a Brother in Launceston, letters in the Brothers' Archives in Perky'Ile and Balmain (formerly at Strathfield, NSW) as well as some secondary sources written by Brothers about different aspects of their life in Australia. The use of such sources exclusively has its limitations. The view is always from the "inside." These sources are often sanitised, and written knowing that some of the people involved will be reading the material. Thus there is a lack of critical comment, a tendency to state facts rather than causes or reasons, and a lack of mention of controversy, failure or other unsavoury aspects of life in the Brothers in Tasmania. It is therefore sometimes difficult to be objective about the Brothers, or to view them from the "outside". At the same time, the very personal responses are also missing. To some extent this thesis includes the personal element, conveyed through interviews with Brothers who taught in Tasmania and who are still alive. Despite these limitations, there is still an abundance of material to enable us to explore the Brothers' life in Tasmania over three quarters of a century. Because the Brothers were not isolated in Tasmania, but came from and went back to other Australian states, we are virtually examining the typical experience of Christian Brothers in most parts of Australia during the Twentieth Century