James Alipius Goold (4 November 1812 – 11 June 1886) was an Australian Augustinian friar and the founding Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne in Australia.

[1] (From 1695 until the 19th century, Irish students for the Catholic priesthood were often sent to the Continent to study due to the then existing penal laws in Britain and Ireland.

[1] In Easter 1837 he had a chance meeting on the steps of the Augustinian church of Santa Maria del Popolo with Benedictine William Bernard Ullathorne, Vicar General of New Holland (Australia).

He transferred to Melbourne, traveling overland in 19 days, being installed on 8 October 1848 in his first Cathedral, St Francis Church[5] in Lonsdale Street.

[6] After negotiations begun in 1848, five acres of land on Eastern Hill were finally granted by the crown on 1 April 1851 and shortly afterwards became the site of St Patrick's cathedral and the bishop's palace.

The discovery of gold in this year enormously increased the population of Melbourne, and it was realised that the church of St Patrick that had been begun would be inadequate.

In order to expand Catholic education, in 1857 Bishop Goold succeeded in bringing the Mercy Sisters from Perth into the diocese.