The Sisters of Mercy, Brisbane Congregation, a Catholic religious order of women from Ireland, was established on 10 May 1861 at the invitation of Bishop Quinn. The Sisters operated orphanages and industrial schools, before late moving away from institutional care to family group homes. The Sisters of Mercy, Brisbane Congregation joined the Australian Federation of the Sisters of Mercy in 1955, and later the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Australia but maintained their autonomy at all times. In 1996 the Sisters of Mercy amalgamated programmes providing services for children and started Mercy Family Services. The Brisbane Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy holds records of children’s institutions run by the Congregation.
Temporary closure of Congregation Archive
In March 2022, the Sisters of Mercy Brisbane Congregation advised that the Congregation Archive is closed to external requests and the records are not likely to be accessible until the end of 2022. The Archive is in the process of being “reassessed and catalogued with preservation plans and processes to be put in place to secure the long-term survival of the collection”.