Charters Towers, etc, Qld; Bendigo, Vic; Inverell, Tamworth, NSW

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New South Wales Government Gazette, Sydney, 5 July 1892, p 5467, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article222108270:

Registrar General's Office,
Sydney, 4th July, 1892.
It is hereby notified that, in conformity with the provisions of the Acts of Council, 19 Victoria Nos. 30 and 34, the undermentioned Officiating Ministers have been registered at this Office for the celebration of Marriages:—
Roman Catholic Church (Diocese of Armidale).
Reverend Michael Hackett (recently from America)—residence, Tamworth. [...]
Charles Pinhey, Registrar General.

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Government Gazette, Evening News, Sydney, 6 July 1892, p 7, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article112595102:

Celebrants of Marriages.—The undermentioned officiating ministers have been registered for the celebration of marriages: Roman Catholic Church (diocese of Armidale), Rev. M. Hackett (recently from America), Tamworth; [...]
[ANZCC note: This article perhaps indicates that there were two priests by the name of M. Hackett.]

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T.W. Campbell, The Priests of the Diocese of Armidale: A Necrology, Braddon ACT, 2005:
Hackett, Michael

Born at Cashel, Tipperary Ireland in 1854, exact date unknown. Details of education unknown. He studied at St Patrick's College, Thurles, fellow students being Pierce Corcoran and Michael Glasheen of Sydney. Date and place of ordination unknown. After arrival in Australia, date unknown [1878], his first appointments were in Brisbane, and after a short time he was sent to the North Queensland Vicariate and worked in the Thornborough and Kingsborough districts, and Charters Towers (1882 to April 1885). Monsignor John Cani, the Apostolic Pro-vicar of the Vicariate of North Queensland, had originally planned to use Hackett and fellow priest Peter Bucas to evangelise the aborigines north of Cooktown but subsequently wrote to Rome about how he would not place him where no other priest was also resident, because of an alcohol problem while in North Queensland. It appears he then transferred to the Bendigo area for some years, then came to the milder climate of the Armidale diocese, where he was based for a short period at Inverell, then Tamworth. He had only been working in Tamworth for three months when he was thrown by his horse on 1 October 1892 near Attunga, while on a trip to Manilla. He died from complications in Tamworth on 12 October 1892. He was buried at Tamworth on 13 October 1892. The inscription on his headstone records "This stone was placed over his resting place by the Catholics of Tamworth in grateful memory of his zealous labours amongst them'.
(Sources: Endicott, The Tamworth News 14 Oct 1892 p 4, FJ 15 Oct 1892 p 15, The Tamworth Observer, 15 Oct 1892 p 2, 18 Oct 1892, Advocate 5 May 1880 p 4, 22 Oct 1892 p 18, 12 Nov 1892 p 17, MDHC A-Z H2).

(Reproduced by permission of Tom Campbell.)

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 39:
Fr Michael Hackett

Father Michael Hackett arrived in Melbourne on the Hampshire on 10 July 1879, having sailed from Gravesend England 10 July 1879. Aged 26 years he was born about 1853. He arrived in Brisbane on the coast steamer Elamang on 27 July.(1)

Queensland government registrations of marriage celebrants, nominates Fr Michael Hackett as resident at the Palmer River in 1880, Cooktown in 1881, Port Douglas in 1882 – that is prior to the first bishop, Dr John Cani, arriving in the new diocese of Rockhampton in May 1882.

I include Fr Hackett as he was a priest of the Brisbane diocese from July 1879 to May 1882. Like most priests ministering in the area of the new diocese of Rockhampton he became a priest of that diocese when it was created in 1882.

According to the same records, Fr Michael Hackett was stationed in Charters Towers in 1883, Rockhampton in 1884, and again in Charters Towers 1885 to 1889. He is not registered in Queensland after this.(2)

The death of Fr Michael Hackett was reported at Tamworth, following a fall from a horse, in October 1892.(3) He was 38 years of age.

Fr W P Southerwood, in his Prayer-Calendar of Deceased Priests & Deacons in Australia 1788-2009, records that Fr Michael Hackett, who died 12 October, 1892, had served in Charters Towers, Bendigo and Inverell and Tamworth in the Armidale diocese.(4) As Fr Michael had been only a short time in Armidale diocese, it appears that he served in the Bendigo diocese between 1889 and 1891.

The following notice appeared in the Freeman's Journal in October, 1892.

Death of a Priest. Fatal fall from a horse
We learn by telegram from Tamworth, that the Rev Father Heckit (sic) succumbed on Wednesday morning to injuries he received about a week ago through a fall from his horse, whilst paying a visit to Manilla. The deceased gentleman was 38 years of age, and although he had only been stationed at Tamworth some two months he had, by his preaching and generous kindness, endeared himself to all classes, and in Father Heckit (sic) the Church and community have lost a generous friend who will only with difficulty be replaced.(5)

The Freeman's Journal in November recorded a meeting to place a headstone over his grave.

The Late Rev Father Hackett
With a view of perpetuating the memory of the late Rev Fr Hackett (says the Tamworth Observer); several of the Catholics of Tamworth met at McCaffrey's Hotel on Wednesday night and decided to erect a suitable headstone over the deceased's grave. A committee was formed, and subscriptions amounting to £10 were collected in the room. A further meeting, we are informed, will be held immediately after 11 o'clock Mass on Sunday.(6)

Footnotes
1. Brisbane Courier, 28 Jul 1879, p. 4.
2. Qld Registration of Marriage Celebrants, 1880 to 1890.
3. NSW Death Registrations, 12601/1892.
4. A Prayer-Calendar of Deceased Priests & Deacons in Australia, 1788-2009.
5. Freeman's Journal, Sydney, 15 Oct 1892, p. 15.
6. Ibid, 5 Nov 1892, p. 15.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.