The establishment of religious schools in the new colony was seen as a crucial need to instil and strengthen faith in the struggling community described as one in which religion was very secondary and money-making was the object and aim of existence.

[1] In December 1863 Bishop Quinn purchased on behalf of the Sisters of Mercy the former home of Dr George Fullerton who had been appointed to the first Legislative Council of Queensland but soon after left for Maranoa.

The house was located on Petrie Bight, across Ann Street from the Bishop's own rented residence, Dara, and these two properties were considered two of the largest and best appointed homes in Brisbane at the time.

[1] Adderton forms the central section of the present day convent, and was originally a two storeyed house with basement which was designed and constructed by early Brisbane builder, Andrew Petrie.

Many of the features of the early house including a geometric stair, entrance door and light, windows and shutters, fireplaces along with the general planning of the interior are extant within what has become a much larger convent.

The Sisters were able to provide a comprehensive education including music, domestic science as well as more academic pursuits where specialist teachers of this sort were not introduced into state schools until the 1940s.

[1] Within the garden to the south of the chapel a small brick building was constructed in 1915 to designs of prominent local architect George Henry Male Addison, to house a life size sculpture of Jesus' crucifixion.

The central tower which appeared on the south eastern side of the building was planned by Bishop Quinn as his own office, where he could oversee the development and management of the school curriculum.

The Sisters established the Industrial School to continue the training of young girls leaving St Vincent's orphanage at Nudgee, in an attempt to prolong their entry in the workforce, where the state age for discharge could be as low as ten years.

Tenders were again called in 1893, to revised designs of FDG Stanley and Son, and the contractors Woollam and Norman who had only recently finished the construction of the extensions to the All Hallows' Convent, were commissioned as builders for the project.

A newspaper report of the opening in The Age gave the following account of the nature of the school:[1] "As it is well-known the institution is largely self-supporting, being the abode of dress-makers, lace and fancy needle workers.

[1] Changes in the education system saw the partial closure of St Ann's in the 1940s, when the building became used as a boarding house for young women studying at university or working in the city.

[1] Adjacent to St Brigids is a small octagonal building of one storey, with a high pitched pyramidal roof which was apparently constructed as an aviary, but is now used for classroom and meeting space.

[1] Many features of the original home, Adderton, remain extant including its facade to the south east, with early window openings and doorway over which is an elliptical fanlight fitted with a stained glass panel.

The sanctuary, which is divided from the nave by a round headed archway supported on substantial red marble columns, is semi-circular in plan and covered by a half domed ceiling.

[1] The principal entrance of the earliest section of the south eastern, emphasised by the projecting bay is through a recent double timber door surmounted by semi-circular fanlight fitted within an early arched opening.

The concert hall has a coffered plaster ceiling with recent mouldings and round headed arched windows with vertical sash fittings, opening onto the loggia spaces.

The south eastern facade of the wing, viewed from the Kemp Place boundary of the site provides evidence of the growth of the building, with four phases of development readily apparent in the roof lines, levels and detailing.

The 1933 section retains its roof form and external detailing which consists of recessed bays housing large rectangular window openings separated by shallow pilasters.

The design of the building shows an influence of Gothic revival architecture particularly in the detailing of the Ann Street facade where pointed arched openings and mouldings, grouped lancet windows, steeply pitched parapeted gables and repeated use of the quatrefoil motif are found.

[1] A central bi-furcating stairway, with substantial masonry balustrade featuring cut-out quatrefoils accesses the ground floor verandah of the building on the Ann Street facade.

[1] The principal internal stair is housed in the stairhall which is expressed externally on the south-west facade with a projecting bay which features four pairs of rectangular stained glass window openings, signifying the level of each floor and the basement.

A sanctuary, at the north western end of the chapel, is separated by an elliptical headed archway, and houses a small marble altar flanked by single tre-foiled lancets fitted with figured stained glass panels.

The second floor houses several early bedroom cells lining the north west side of the building, with access to an enclosed verandah facing Ann Street.

[1] Abutting the southern corner of St Ann's and extending to the south east is a one storeyed brick extension with hipped corrugated iron roof and verandah awning on the north eastern side supported on chamfered timber posts.

The steeply pitched hipped slate roof is concealed on the Ann Street facade by a parapet, being an entablature, consisting of a cornice with dentils surmounted by an architrave.

The facade of the building is symmetrically composed around a central doorway flanking which are large window openings separated by pilasters with simple moulded capitals and bases and supporting a cornice, on which the overhanging corrugated iron roof sits.

St Gertrude's playing grounds in the northern corner of the school is an established area with important planting including a bougainvillea hedge and a large weeping fig.

[1] The school and convent have remained an important feature of the Catholic Church in Queensland throughout the site's 130-year history reflected in the active interest of Archbishops Quinn, Dunne and Duhig in the planning and development of the institution.

The introspective nature of the site planning and the relationship among the various provide an intact physical manifestation of the catholic ethos of female education during the nineteenth and twentieth century.