BAYVIEW College is celebrating 140 years in the Portland this week by inviting the community along for a special service, afternoon tea and tour of the school building.

This Friday at 2pm a service will be held in the school’s gymnasium with St Stephen's Anglican Church Reverend Wendy Morecroft, Portland Baptist Church Pastor Jonathan Rulton and All Saints Catholic Church Father Gregory Tait.

At 3pm, afternoon tea will commence, catered by Lacee’s Kitchen, then visitors can choose to go on a guided tour of the school.

The tour will include information about how the school has developed over the many years, and how it was originally founded by a Nun, Mary Gonzaga Barry.

Bayview College director of Christian identity and culture Maree Rulton said that in the late 1800s, Mother Gonzaga Barry was in the Loreto Order of Sisters in Ireland when she was asked to move to Australia.

“Mary Ward (a Nun) was the original founder of Loreto (in England). That was back in the 1600s,” she said.

“(Mary Gonzaga Barry) had joined the order that Mary Ward had set up and she was asked by the Bishop of Ballarat, to come to Australia to set up schools.

“She prayed about it and then agreed that that was something God was telling her to do, so she grabbed nine other Nuns, put themselves on a boat, turned up to Ballarat and started the Loreto School in Ballarat.

“Then she got sick and was sent to Portland to get better. She fell in love with Portland.

“While she was here, they (locals to Portland) said ‘we need you to set up a school here’ and so she went ‘okay’, went back to Ballarat, got a couple of Nuns, moved to Portland and then set up Loreto Portland.”

It was 1884 when Loreto Portland was established, and today it is now known as Bayview College.

How the school expanded and came to change its name will be explained in the tour, along with the information about Saint Mary MacKillop who taught in Portland before Loreto Portland’s establishment.

Anyone who wishes to attend must RSVP by contacting lisa.sealey@bayview.vic.edu.au or 03 5523 2042