Maybe this will help ( source " The Catholic Story " by B T Doyle and J A Morley 1953 ) Catholic Church in Australia : When the First Fleet sailed to Australia to set up its first penal colony, the only religion approved for the colony was the Established Church of England. An English Catholic priest, Fr Thomas Walsh had requested permission in England to be allowed to accompany the fleet to minister to the convicts, but that request was never answered. On January 26, 1788, two French ships joined Captain Arthur Phillip's First Fleet in Botany Bay. On board the French ships were two Catholic priests, Abbé Jean-Andre Monges and Fr Claude-Francois Joseph Louis Receveur, a Franciscan monk. Fr Receveur acted as chaplain, naturalist and astronomer for the French expedition. Fr Receveur died on February 17, having been wounded by local warriors in the Samoan Islands. He was the first Catholic priest to be buried on Australian soil and his grave forms part of the "La Perouse monument" at Botany Bay, which has been given in perpetuity to France. There is reasonable evidence to suggest that Abbé Monges would have celebrated Mass on Board the ships anchored at Botany Bay - the first Mass celebrated on Australian territory. The penal settlement of New South Wales had no resident Catholic priest and no Catholic Church when it was established in 1788, and this did not change until early in the next century. Catholics were obliged to attend the Anglican Sunday service, and their daily rations would be reduced if they did not. On November 30, 1792, five Catholic settlers at Parramatta petitioned Governor Phillip in an attempt to secure an official Catholic priest for the colony. That petition was fruitless, so there were still no facilities for Catholic life and worship - For all ceremonies such as baptisms, marriages and burials, Catholics had to turn to the Anglican chaplains or do without. In fact there were three priests amongst the convicts - Frs James Harold, James Dixon and Peter O'Neil. They were all Irishmen transported to Australia because of their supposed roles in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Because they were convicts, they had no official status and were not permitted to carry out any priestly duties. By 1802, there were more than 1700 Catholics in Australia but this burgeoning community still had no active Catholic priest. Finally on April 19, 1803, the Governor authorized Fr Dixon to publicly celebrate a Mass. The first 'officially-sanctioned' Mass took place on May 15, 1803. It is believed to have been celebrated at the Rocks for a congregation of convicts. The first Mass is commemorated in a stained glass window located in St Mary's Cathedral. After numerous requests and a Commission of Enquiry into the conditions of the Colony, in 1819 two Priests were officially authorised by the colonial government to minister to the Catholics of the New South Wales. >From this time until 1834 the entire Australian mainland and the island of Tasmania was a distant outpost of the Vicariate Apostolic of Mauritius. On 12th May, 1834, the Vicariate Apostolic of New Holland was erected and Father John Bede Polding, an English Benedictine was appointed as Vicar Apostolic with jurisdiction over what is now the Commonwealth of Australia. On 28th February, 1842, the Diocese of Sydney was erected with Bishop Polding as its Residential Bishop. Some weeks later (14th April, 1842) Sydney was made a Metropolitan See, with Hobart and Adelaide as suffragans. At that time, the Archdiocese of Sydney included the whole of the Eastern portion of the continent, comprising what are now the states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland. Arnie