Quilpie's St Finbarr's to close after 57 years
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A boarding house at a school in Queensland's south-west will close this weekend after 57 years of operation.
Hundreds of primary-aged children from across the region have attended the co-educational boarding school at St Finbarr's at Quilpie, but the boarding facilities will now close due to a lack of numbers.
The principal, Sister Margaret Anderson, says there are very few families with young children remaining in the area and the closure will be a sad occasion.
"In terms of the Sisters of St Joseph, our congregation had boarding schools in all of the states and New Zealand since the time of Mary McKillop and this is the last Josephite boarding school," she said.
"So for us as Sisters of St Joseph it's quite a significant moment in our history that this would be now the last one."
Sister Anderson says it is a sad occasion.
"There is some sadness but people were aware that it really was inevitable when our numbers dropped below five it became unviable to run the boarding school for that," she said.
"You know families have perhaps moved on or they have no more children in their family to come to school."
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