St Joseph's Nudgee College (commonly referred to simply as Nudgee or Nudgee College) is an independent Catholic primary and secondary day and boarding school for boys, located in Boondall, a northern suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
The school was founded by the Congregation of Christian Brothers in 1891 as a result of the large numbers of boarders at St. Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace, also operated by the Christian Brothers, and insufficient room to house the boarders. Both schools share St. Joseph's College as part of their name and follow the Edmund Rice tradition, administered via Edmund Rice Education Australia. Nudgee currently caters for approximately 1,600 students from Year 5 to Year 12, including 300 boarders.
In 2006, some of the buildings of the school were listed in the Queensland Heritage Register.
St Joseph's is affiliated with the Australian Boarding Schools Association (ABSA), the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia (AHISA), the Junior School Heads Association of Australia (JSHAA), and is a founding member of the Great Public Schools Association of Queensland (GPS).
History
The college was established in 1891, as the boarding campus for St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace. Its location was selected by Brother Patrick Ambrose Treacy, founder of the Australian Province of the Christian Brothers, at the request of the Archbishop of Brisbane at the time, Robert Dunne. Brother D. F. Bodkin was appointed first Headmaster.
At the time of Nudgee College's Golden Jubilee in 1941, the late Archbishop Sir James Duhig described the college as being "the jewel in the crown of the Christian Brothers' Schools in Queensland".
School buildings
The main building was completed in 1891; the architect was Andrea Stombuco. The façade of this building was used in the movie Phar Lap. The matching chapel was completed in 1916 and is used for weddings and funerals in addition to school celebrations. In 1993, after refurbishment, it won Royal Australian Institute of Architects Conservation Award and Regional Commendation. A second school building was completed in 1919. All three buildings were completed in the Italian Renaissance style.
In 1938, Nudgee Junior College was opened at a separate campus in Indooroopilly. In 2015, it was renamed Ambrose Treacy College.
Building has continued at Boondall, and the campus now has sporting and academic facilities including technologically advanced classrooms throughout the school, an award-winning multi-level learning centre, science laboratories, a vocational education centre, a 400-seat auditorium, 13 playing fields for cricket, rugby and football, 12 tennis courts, indoor and outdoor basketball and volleyball courts, a multi-purpose gymnasium, an Olympic grade athletics track, a weights room, Olympic 50-metre and 25-metre heated swimming pools, a sound-proofed, digital recording studio, art workshops, and cattle yards.
Other significant developments
In July 1967, a 17-year-old student of the college, John Frances Treacy, was murdered outside the chapel by a 29-year-old man, John Martin Heywood. Heywood had befriended Treacy while in hospital in August 1966. Heywood, who had a long criminal history, was convicted of the murder, and spent the remainder of his life in prison or in mental hospitals.
In September 1996, Br. Stephen David McLaughlin, Nudgee College Headmaster from 1988 to 1993, wrote an article in The Courier-Mail in which he claimed to have personally cared for more than 40 foster children in conjunction with Nudgee College and the Queensland Families Department. Subsequently, in August 2022, the Queensland State Government Children’s Department confirmed McLaughlin was given "caring responsibilities" for foster children in the 1990s despite having never been "formally assessed" as a foster carer. Children's Department Minister Leanne Linard said she had ordered a review of the arrangement involving foster children being placed at the Nudgee College.
On 30 October 1997, Br. Stephen David McLaughlin delivered a speech at the Nudgee College annual speech night in which he defended the Christians Brothers against accusations of child sexual abuse claiming there is an "orchestrated campaign where few individuals are systematically targeting and attempting to destroy the hard-won reputations of brother after brother" and McLaughlin asked the Nudgee community to "fight for the Christian Brothers because we need you to support us in this time of real need.". The entire speech was submitted to Parliament by Senator Herron on 11 November 1997.