St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace


St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace is a private, Roman Catholic, day school for boys, located in Spring Hill, an inner suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Founded on 5 July 1875 by three Irish Christian Brothers, the College follows the Edmund Rice tradition, and currently caters for about 1436 students from Years 5 to 12.
St Joseph's College is affiliated with the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia, It is no longer affiliated with the Combined Independent Colleges, and is a founding member of the Great Public Schools' Association Inc. An Old Boy, Hugh Lunn, wrote books about his life at St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace.

History

The "Battle of the Colours", the start of a great rivalry

Terrace was founded in 1875 as both a day school and a boarding school. The original colours for the school were Navy Blue and White, adopted from the Congregational Crest of the Christian Brothers. In 1891 the boarding school was moved to Nudgee and in time became what is now Nudgee College, the boarding school adopted colours of Royal Blue and White. The original Gregory Terrace Navy and White rugby jersey was adopted by the Brothers Old Boys Rugby Club upon formation in 1905 and is still worn by them today. The schools both competed in the famous "Butchers' Stripes" in different shades of blue until 1923 when it was suggested by the newly appointed Gregory Terrace Headmaster, Brother Reidy that, even though the Terrace Navy Blue was close to black, one of the schools change their White to Red for easier recognition on the rugby field. At the time the Christian Brothers were changing their Motto and Crest and Brother Reidy decided to change the Terrace colours to Black and Red at the same time the crest changed.
The rivalry between the original school and the offshoot is legendary and never more so than at the annual GPS rugby match. The game attracts large crowds and is fiercely contested between the two schools. The "Battle of the Colours" adds to old school tie passion that surrounds the traditional rivalry and the atmosphere of the day.

2011 Brisbane floods

During the January floods, St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace had their playing fields at Tennyson, inundated with toxic waste and water from the nearby Rocklea Fruit Market. No sports were able to be played at Tennyson during the 2011 school year and a massive refurbishment and rebuild involved the canteen and Boatshed, the iconic Grandstand was destroyed. Soil and turf were removed and completely relaid due to foul nature of the debris. During 2011 Terrace played only one home game, at Brisbane Grammar Sports ground, which was very kindly lent for the day, all other games were played at the opposing school's facilities.
Tennyson reopened in 2012 and they have completed the building of a new grandstand and player facilities.

Extra curricular activities

GPS premierships

St Joseph's College's Queensland Great Public Schools premierships include:
ActivityPremiership Years
Rugby1927, 1929, 1932, 1956, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1996, 2004
RowingGPS Premiership 1997, 2007, 2008, 2009,
1st VIII : 1982, 1994, 1996, 2008
Swimming1918, 1919, 1921, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1970, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991
Basketball1997, 2000, 2004, 2019
Tennis1955, 1992, 1998, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2015
Gymnastics1919, 1941, 1942, 1995
Cross Country2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014
Soccer
Athletics1927, 1930, 1934, 1950, 1951
Cricket1952, 2004, 2020
Volleyball1996, 1997, 2000, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2020
DebatingGPS 1975, 1976, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1989, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2015, 2019
QDU 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1985, 1990, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2010, 2015

Rugby
Gregory Terrace has produced more Wallabies than any other school in Queensland and second in Australia, with 32 players having represented Australia.

House system

There are nine houses at Terrace: Barrett, Buckley, Kearney, Magee, Mahoney, Reidy, Treacy, Windsor and Xavier. Originally six, three new houses were introduced at the beginning of the 2009 school year.

Original houses

Barrett House - after James Barrett, the founding headmaster of the College, who arrived in Australia in 1871.

Kearney House - after James Kearney who came to Australia in 1911, teaching and serving as headmaster in many schools. He was the author of the School Song.

Mahoney House - after the Mahoney Family, including several Rhodes Scholars.

Reidy House - after Mark Reidy, who spent 23 years at Terrace, for 16 of which he was headmaster.
Treacy House - after Patrick Ambrose Treacy, who in charge of the three Brothers who
restarted the mission of the Christian Brothers in Australia in Melbourne in 1868.

Windsor House - after the Windsor Family. Henry Windsor, he became an eminent benefactor of Terrace when he arrived in Australia and provided the funds to build the original college pool.

New houses

Buckley House – after Barry Buckley, Headmaster at Terrace from 1973–1981 and a past student 1951-1952. Br
Buckley is highly respected by the community for the significant contribution he made during his time as Headmaster. Br
Buckley was made a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2008 Australia Day Honours List for his contribution to education and the church.

Magee House – after Ted Magee, Headmaster at Terrace from 1990-1992. Although Magee was only Headmaster for
three years, during that time he introduced the current House system that has become the hallmark of the community's
pastoral care system which supports the students.

Xavier House – to acknowledge the long history of the St Francis Xavier Province. John Stanislaus Campbell was the first provincial head of St Francis Xavier Province.

Notable alumni