Cardijn College

Our story

Cardijn College was set up as a joint project of the South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools and the parishes of Noarlunga Downs, Willunga and Morphett Vale. Its first principal, Marist Brother Walter Smith, was appointed in 1983 to oversee the building work, and the college opened on 7 February 1984 with 103 students on a nearly empty block at Noarlunga Downs.

Buildings went up stage by stage through the 1980s, including the library, science block, oval and the Romero and Lombard buildings, and by the time Brother Smith left in 1988 to do missionary work in Pakistan there were 900 students. The Marcellin campus at Christie Downs and the Galilee campus at Aldinga later joined the college. Today Cardijn is a Catholic co-educational college in the Marist tradition, with about 2,500 students across three campuses from Reception to Year 12.