From humble beginnings of 1948 comprising a small brick hall which was used as a Mass Centre and had previously been used as a dance hall and picture theatre, together with a fibro dwelling used as presbytery located in Chester Hill, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Sefton, grew and flourished under the care of the religious order of priests known as the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

The history of I.H.M Sefton is one that closely mirrors the development of the adjoining suburbs in which the parishioners resided. From those early days the Parish struggled and expanded during the 1950’s and 1960’s in response to the demands placed on it by the increasing numbers of new parishioners, mostly of whom were “battlers” and were attempting to establish a home for their families. 

Those days of hardship when money was hard to come by and the subsequent development of the pairsh is a story of co-operation, resourcefulness and hard work whereby the priests and parishioners shared together their common burder “for the glory of God” 

The history of the Catholic parish of Sefton needs to be viewed from the wider perspective of the history of the Sefton district and its surrounding areas. Until well into the 1950’s the area was relatively sparsely settled with many poultry farms and some orchards being the main industries associated with the area. The railway had come to Sefton and Chester Hill in 1924 and there was a gradual expansion of settlement into the district as people moved out from the inner suburbs of Sydney looking for cheaper land on which to build houses. 

There had been some housing development in pockets of the district after World War I as part of the soldiers resettlement scheme but it was not until the end of the Second World War that the area could be seen as growing by “leaps and bounds”

In 1919 Mass was celebrated for the first time in a hall in Third Avenue, Berala by Father P. McElligott. This hall was transferred to Kingsland Road Berala about 1928. Although still in Lidcombe parish, Berala soon became self-supporting. Sefton was originally part of Bankstown parish and the faithful of the district were faced with going to Mass either at Bankstown or Berala.



Father Maurice Kennedy, administrator of Bankstown parish in the absence of Dr Eris O’Brien (later to become Archbishop of Canberra-Goulburn), Parish Priest of Bankstown, who was overseas at the time, celebrated the first Mass in a hall on the “heights” of Sefton in Kerrinea Street. This hall was a long time building, there being much delay in its completion… the hall apparently built by a Mr Perc Jeffries for Robert Harley Real Estate and was completed in 1934.

Father Andrew McCusker OMI who founded the Oblate Parish of Sefton on 01 . 11 . 1948.

In 2018 the Parishes of Immaculate Heart of Mary Sefton and Sacred Heart Villawood are now under the care of the  Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

PARISH PRIEST

Very Reverend Maurice T. Thompson Episcopal Vicar, Parish Priest

Most Rev. Archbishop Anthony Fisher has appointed Very Rev. Fr Maurice T. Thompson Episcopal Vicar and Parish Priest of St Christopher’s Panania and St Luke’s Revesby Heights to  Immaculate Heart of Mary Sefton and Sacred Heart Villawood. 

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