Carroll College has three Houses: Chisholm, MacKillop and Xavier. As today is Chisholm Day, I thought it would be interesting to write about each House Patron of the school and provide some insight into why we see them as role models for Christian life. In this newsletter, I will focus on Caroline Chisholm.

Caroline Chisholm (1808-1877)

Caroline Chisholm was born in England to an Evangelical family. She married at 22 on the condition that she be allowed to continue her philanthropic work. Her husband, Captain Archibald Chisholm, was Catholic and Caroline converted to Catholicism at the time of her marriage. 

The Chisholms arrived in the colony of New South Wales in 1838. In her years in NSW and Victoria, she focused her work on assisting and protecting poor and vulnerable migrant women. Caroline established a number of organisations dedicated to women’s rights including the Female Emigrant’s Home in Sydney which not only provided shelter but helped unemployed young women find work both in the city and in rural areas.  

Caroline Chisholm worked on improving conditions on the ships and arranged for the families of convicts to be transported free to Australia so they could be reunited with their loved ones. 

In 1994, she was posthumously awarded the Order of Australia.

Adapted from the Chisholm Institute 2023

Caroline Chisholm has become a part of the fabric and culture of Carroll College. We remember and honour her tenacity, her commitment to justice and her dedication to her faith. Caroline Chisholm is a role model because she knew that every person, male, female, young, and old, deserves to be treated with respect and dignity and deserves to be able to participate fully in society. She protected the vulnerable and weak. Caroline Chisholm knew what it meant to ‘Be Christ-like’. 

We hope that the students of Chisholm House follow in her footsteps and be people of Christ who stand up for what is right and who never let difficult circumstances stop them from achieving their goals.

Erica Drewsen

REC Coordinator