Mercedes College
Where it sits among Adelaide schools
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The Sisters of Mercy reached Adelaide in 1880 after leaving Buenos Aires during unrest there, and later ran a girls’ boarding school as part of St Aloysius in Angas Street. Looking for a healthier setting for their boarders, they bought a 20-acre property at Springfield, centred on Strathspey, the house Sir John Duncan built in 1899, and opened Mercedes College in 1954 with 80 boarders and 60 day pupils. “Mercedes” is Spanish for mercy, a nod to the order’s Argentine connection.
Boarding was phased out after about 21 years, and the first boys joined Year 8 in 1976. Today Mercedes is a co-educational Catholic day school from Reception to Year 12, about 1,111 students (2025), and an International Baccalaureate school offering SACE alongside IB programmes.
Facilities & sport
- Australian rules football
- Soccer
- Netball
- Cricket
- Basketball
- Swimming
- Athletics
- Tennis
- Volleyball
- Badminton
- Water polo
From the school’s website (source). A missing item may just not be listed.
Fees, results and cost to Year 12
Parents’ say
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Photos: Flickr contributors (CC BY-SA 2.0). Full credits