Mother Gonzaga Barry led the Loreto nuns to Sydney from Ballarat, Victoria in 1892, establishing a school in rented premises at Randwick.

It had been raining, but as the nuns arrived at the site, the sun burst through the clouds and formed a beautiful rainbow over the estate.

[9]This land was purchased, and the foundation stone for the new convent was laid on 28 February 1897[9] by Cardinal Moran.

[10] The school opened late in 1897 as "Loreto Convent, Hornsby" with 15 boarders, many of them girls who had come from Randwick.

[9] Although primarily a boarding school at this time, Loreto did accept a small number of day students from the local Hornsby area, including some young boys.