Blackfriars Priory School
Where it sits among Adelaide schools
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Our story
Blackfriars Priory School takes its name from the Dominican friars, known in England as the Black Friars for the black cloak they wear over a white habit. The Dominicans came to Adelaide in 1898 to run the parish of North Adelaide and Prospect. In the early 1950s the order wanted a Catholic boys’ school for the city’s growing post-war population, and at the end of 1951 the Prior of St Laurence’s, Fr Jerome O’Rorke, negotiated to buy the Lewis family’s Prospect property, first known as St Catharine’s.
Builders, friars and young volunteers turned the house, stables and out-buildings into classrooms, and Archbishop Matthew Beovich opened the school on 25 January 1953. About 45 boys started on 10 February, taught by five Dominican priests and a brother. Blackfriars is still the only school in Australia founded by the Dominican friars. Today it is a Catholic boys’ school from Reception to Year 12, with more than 800 students on 4.5 hectares beside the North Adelaide parklands.
Fees, results and cost to Year 12
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