The Queen of the Holy Rosary Mission, also known as Old Uniya, was established by Jesuit missionaries on the Daly River in 1886. Although missionaries aimed to educate and convert children, no dormitories were established. The mission closed in July 1891 and was reopened at a new location a few months later. It was then referred to both as New Uniya and St Josephs.
The Queen of the Holy Rosary Mission, also known as Old Uniya, was established by Austrian Jesuit Missionaries on the Daly River in 1886. The land was granted to the Jesuits by the South Australian Government. It was the second Jesuit mission to open in the Northern Territory and was started due to the perceived success of the first mission at Rapid Creek, St Josephs. For five years, the two missions operated at the same time.
Missionaries at Old Uniya struggled with illness and the impact of the harsh climate, but just before its closure in July 1891, the mission was described as 'a thriving settlement'. It appears that although the missionaries tried to educate and convert Aboriginal children, they did not establish a residential dormitory.
The Queen of the Holy Rosary Mission closed in 1891 and then re-opened as a new station called New Uniya that same year on a new site. It also took on the name of the first mission at Rapid Creek, St Josephs, which closed in December 1891.
1886 - 1891 Queen of the Holy Rosary Mission
1891 - 1899 St Joseph's Mission, Daly River
Sources used to compile this entry: 'News and Notes', Northern Territory Times and Gazette, 13 March 1891, p. 3, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article3318550; Our Story: History of NT Church, The Diocese of Darwin, The Catholic Church in the Northern Territory, https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225601/http://www.darwin.catholic.org.au/our-story/history-nt-church.htm.
Prepared by: Karen George and Gary George
Created: 7 February 2011, Last modified: 4 March 2014
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nt/biogs/YE00018b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License