1872
The 1st Catholic Church St Columbkille's was built in Charters Towers on the Just in Time mining lease
Columba Catholic College has an enrolment of approximately 600 students.
The population of the College comprises students from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds and includes students from rural Queensland, from regional centres of Queensland, from interstate, students of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent, and some in whose homes English is spoken only as a second language.
One of the ongoing challenges which the College is always endeavouring to meet is to find effective ways of meeting the range of academic needs of its students - the extremely gifted, those for whom learning is difficult, and the students of average ability for whom a creative approach to curriculum is no less necessary.
In keeping with the Mission Statement, teachers at Columba Catholic College are invited to see their vocation as a following of Christ, the ultimate teacher. In doing this, they will endeavour to provide a caring environment based on sincere relationships, to help students internalise Christian values.
In the same spirit, the College will endeavour to provide the students with a sound up to date curriculum which is aimed at developing each individual's potential in a range of areas, including academic excellence. Believing that the ideal process of education is a shared one and that faith is assimilated through contact with people whose daily life bears witness to it, the College invites parents, students and staff to share the same basic Christian approach to life.
A Proud Local History
Charters Towers is a city of 11 794 people situated 135 km south-west of Townsville. The city has a long history of providing quality education to the people of the Charters Towers community and to families from across North Queensland.
In recent years, that provision has been available to people from a wider background, including students from overseas. The city has a number of day and boarding schools, Catholic, Anglican and non-denominational, as well as State Primary and Secondary schools. The economy of the town is otherwise built on mining (gold, in particular) and on the beef industry.
In 1998, the three Catholic schools in Charters Towers amalgamated to form a single school, Columba Catholic College, operating from the three existing campuses. The new school comes under the authority of the Diocese of Townsville, through the Catholic Education Office.
The three schools forming Columba Catholic College were:
St. Columba's Primary School - founded in 1876 by the Sisters of Mercy, later administered by the Good Samaritan Sisters, and then by Lay Staff from 1988.
St. Mary's College - founded in 1882 by the Sisters of Mercy. From 1900, the Sisters of the Good Samaritan administered the College. This continued until 1979 when the first Lay Principal was appointed.
Mount Carmel College - was founded in 1902 and was owned and operated by the Christian Brothers, until 1997. In 1998, the Brothers relinquished control of the school to the Diocese.
