Robert Lehane, Forever Carnival: A story of priests, professors & politics in 19th century Sydney.

Johnston, Elizabeth

ROBERT LEHANE, Forever Carnival: A story of priests, professors & politics in 19th century Sydney, Ginninderra Press, Canberra ACT, 2004; ISBN: 1 74027 268 4; 330 pages, pbk.

Forever Carnival tells the story of the foundation of St John's College at the University of Sydney. The central character, Dr John Forrest, the first rector, arrived from Ireland in 1859 at a time of tension and division in the Australian Catholic church. The Benedictine archbishops of Sydney, John Bede Polding and Roger Vaughan, did not generally have good relations with the Irish-born diocesan bishops, and Forrest, following his arrival, regularly found himself in difficult positions.

In mid-1857 fundraising had commenced for the establishment of St John's. Very quickly 12,000 [pounds sterling] was donated or promised, and later that year the Bill formally establishing St John's College passed through the New South Wales parliament. The election of a college council and the appointment of the first rector involved much angst, but, in Ireland, on 1 September 1859 Archdeacon McEncroe signed an agreement with the Very Rev. Dr John Forrest for him to take up the role. Forrest came with warm recommendations from both Archbishop Cullen and John Henry Newman.

The story from here on is a most interesting one--Lehane recounts the turbulent beginnings of St John's as a grandiose building lost its architect, William Wardell, and went critically over-budget; as student numbers always stayed very low, and, at one stage, were virtually non-existent; as Lyndhurst was favoured by Polding over St John's; and as Forrest eventually resigned as rector in 1874, to be succeeded by Archbishop Vaughan; and much more. In the fourteen years he was rector only fourteen students took degrees, a low number, but this most interesting book needs to be read to understand how that came to be.

In Forever Carnival Robert Lehane sets Forrest and the difficult early years of St John's College in the Sydney of the time, and many fascinating stories are told. The sub-title a story of priests, professors and politics in 19th century Sydney is an excellent summary. And 'politics' certainly encompasses both Church and state.

Elizabeth Johnston