Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 2: Biographies of Priests on the Australian Scene up to 1900, 1980, p 77:

Cooke, John, Archdeacon, Irish
Apostle Among the Aborigines at Boorowa
Those who claim that the Church has done nothing for the original owners of Australia should look into the lives of Bishops Gsell and Salvado, Fr Duncan McNab - and a host of less well-known clerics, including John Cooke, and, perhaps, Eugene Luckie, known, according to Cardinal Moran, as 'The King of the Blacks'. Cooke could claim the same birth-place as Archbishop Mannix, namely, Charleville in County Cork. His parents were Thomas and Alicia (O'Grady), and according to the All Hallows records was born on 27 November 1829. He came to his priesthood studies at the mature age of 24 and was ordained at the College on Easter Tuesday (26 April) in 1859, leaving for the Sydney Mission in June of that year. First posting was to Parramatta where he remained until 1861. A short stay at St. Mary's Cathedral was followed by a further two year service at Parramatta. Late in 1862 he was transferred to Boorowa (Burrowa seems to be an older spelling), remaining until January 1864. Page 108 of The Men of '38, 'John O'Brien', is here quoted: "Dean Hanly ... in a letter to Archdeacon McEncroe on 11 January 1864 states that the Archbishop's orders were to call Fr Cooke to Sydney ... Fr Cooke had done great work among the Aborigines at Boorowa, on one occasion baptising a number of them with great ceremony. He went to Maitland ..." It seems that Boorowa had been regarded as a part of the Yass Mission until 1864 when it was officially made a separate unit. The Yass Courier of 4 March 1863 records that Lambing Flat was entrusted "to the care of Fr Cooke of Boorowa", indicating Cooke's living at Boorowa at that time. As indicated by 'John O'Brien', Cooke was recalled to Sydney in early 1863, and received appointment to East Maitland. Later he was transferred to Newcastle, and when the Diocese of Maitland was established in April 1866 he opted to join the Bathurst Diocese and be the servant of Bishop Matthew Quinn. Wellington, a far-flung mission, was his domain until March 1873 when he transferred to the mission at Rockley. It seems strange that a priest with a distinguished record and an Archdeacon's title should be opting out at the age of 50 to go as a convent chaplain to California. Possibly his health after years in the diaspora had broken down. Anyhow his last recorded baptism in Rockley was November 1878, and the time his demise? ... well nobody seems to know.
(Footprints, Vol. 2, No. 10)
Ref.: MDHC File, Torquay, & 'The Men of '38', as quoted.