Panels top off MacKillop cottage refurbishment in Arrowtown

St Mary visited and stayed in the cottage in the late 1890s while setting up and supporting Catholic schools in Otago.

St Patrick’s parishioner Susan Rowley said more than 1000 school children and many tourists visit the cottage each year, but information about its history had been sitting in clear files on a table. Lakes District Museum educators wanted the information to be better presented, so it would hold the children’s attention, Ms Rowley said.

“We also wanted to create a more memorable experience for visitors overall by combining images and written detail,” she added.

Built in about 1870, the stone cottage is listed with Heritage NZ as a category 2 historic place. A restoration was finished in 1995 when Mary MacKillop was beatified. She was canonised as a saint in 2010. 

The cottage is in the grounds of St Patrick’s Church in Arrowtown. Ms Rowley said its exterior had been badly in need of repainting and its chimney was in disrepair.

The recent refurbishment was a joint project between St Patrick’s parishioners, the museum, the Queenstown Historical Society and the Sisters of Saint Joseph Aotearoa NZ, which provided the funding.

The information for the panels was mainly compiled by museum and historical society stalwart Denise Heckler, along with Ms Rowley and fellow parishioner Jane-Louise Cook.

FULL STORY

Panels bringing visits to Mary MacKillop Cottage alive (By Guy Williams/Otago Daily Times)

Mary MacKillop Cottage in Queenstown (My Guide Queenstown)