Sydney, Goulburn, Bathurst, etc, NSW

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Prayer Calendar: Deceased Priests who have ministered the Catholic Faith throughout Toowoomba and districts, 1864–2025, Compiled by Annie Carrett, Diocesan Archivist, 2001, Updated by Gabrielle Saide, Diocesan Archivist, 2023:
Rev Eugene Luckie, died 12 May (or June) 1883

Eugene Luckie was born in Crossmaglen, Co.Armagh, in 1822 and studied for the priesthood at All Hallows and Maynooth. It is uncertain as to the exact date he arrived in Australia. In 1846 he was ordained Deacon. He left Brisbane to join Archbishop Polding. He was ordained in Sydney with others on 6th May 1848. Apparently he first went to Windsor to follow that 'Dearest and best of Priests', Fr Therry. On the 5th September that same year, he left for Moreton Bay to Fr Hanly and was based in Ipswich. In 1849 Ipswich was declared a separate Parish and Fr Luckie was appointed as the first Parish Priest. In that early period Fr Luckie and Fr Hanly shared the workload of travelling out to the remote corners of the Brisbane Diocese. In 1849, the two priests are recorded as christening children in Drayton and Warwick, and towards the end of that year are also recorded in registers for Inglewood and Dalby, offering the first Mass at the latter place in the slab public house. He continued to visit many areas until 1851 when he was transferred to Ophir near Bathurst. He was also stationed at Lewisham, Raymond Terrace, Stroud, Young and Sydney. He died at St Vincent's Hospital in 1883 and is buried at St Thomas' Church, Lewisham.
(Ref. Linane L88 and Martin, p 96)

Reproduced by permission of Bishop Ken Howell.

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Denis M. Long, Pioneer and Early Priests, Archdiocese of Brisbane, Deceased or retired by 1929, 2021, p 27:
Fr Eugene Luckie

Fr Eugene Luckie, the first resident priest in Ipswich, arrived in Moreton Bay thirteen years before Bishop Quinn. He is remembered in the memorial card of 1931.

Eugene Luckie entered All Hallows Missionary College from Maynooth in January 1854. He was the son of Thomas and Anne (nee McNamee) Luckie of Crossmaglen in co Armagh, about 1822. He was ordained a deacon in Ireland by Archbishop Murray on 30 September 1846 and a priest by Bishop Polding in Sydney on 7 May 1848.(1)

On 9th September (1848) there arrived in Brisbane by the costal steamer, 'Tamar', from Sydney Father Eugene Luckie, who was to assist Father Hanly. Father Luckie who had arrived in Sydney in February was ordained there on 6th May and left for Moreton Bay on 5th September… A week after his arrival in Brisbane, Fr Luckie set to work. His name begins to appear in the registers with a Baptism on 17th and a Marriage on the 18th September. On Sunday 24th he was in Ipswich and it seems from this date onwards the Catholics of Ipswich were able to attend Sunday Mass, 'in a room in Mr Christopher Gorry's cottage'. After his sermon, Father Luckie announced that the New South Wales government had made a grant of money towards the erection of a school-house. With £80 already subscribed by the residents of Ipswich, it would be possible to erect an adequate sized building, which would be used for worship on Sundays and a school on week days.(2)

The year 1849 began with the founding of the Ipswich Mission. On the first page of the Ipswich Register, Fr Eugene Luckie has written 'The Ipswich Mission founded January 1st, 1849, by the Rev Eugene Luckie, Catholic Pastor'. However it was not until April that the first entries for the 'Parish of Ipswich' appear. Before that, both Fathers Hanly and Luckie were entering their records in the 'District of Brisbane' books kept in Brisbane. Sometime between 10th of January and 11th February, Fr Luckie changed his address from 'of Brisbane' to 'of Ipswich'. Whenever the school-house was erected at Ipswich, and almost certainly it was early in 1849, it seems that it was nevertheless a 'rude shanty'. The one running description is that it was a small slab and shingle building, without glass windows as shutters were used for protection and light. It was to serve as the Ipswich church for ten years.(3)

In 1849, James Hanly and Eugene Luckie shared the spiritual workload of travelling to the remote corners of their parish, administering the sacraments and collecting funds for church buildings. … In late July and early August Eugene Luckie looked after Brisbane and Ipswich while James Hanly went up through the districts of Gayndah, Maryborough and the upper Brisbane River. Towards the end of October, Fr Luckie rode out of Ipswich and was not to return till early in December. The registers show that he performed baptisms at the following places: - Drayton on October 21st, Warwick on 31st, Marylands on November 3rd and on the following day performed a marriage, Tenterfield on 7th and 8th, Deep Water and Rangers' Valley on the 9th, Bolivia November 10th, Maiden Head, Severn River on November 15th, Byron Plains on 18th, McIntyre Brook on November 23rd, Bodumba on 25th, Canal Creek (now Leyburn)26th, Myall Creek (now Dalby) on December 2, Drayton on December 5th.(4)

Fr Luckie was transferred south in August 1851. During his stay in the Moreton Bay district he endeared himself to the local aborigines. Fr Luckie died in St Vincent's Hospital on 12 May 1883 and was buried near St Thomas's Church, Lewisham.

Footnotes
1. Kevin Condon, The Missionary College of All Hallows 1842-1891, 1986, student 51, p. 291.
2. Denis W Martin, The Foundation of the Catholic Church in Queensland, 1988 edition, p 9. 83-84.
3. Ibid. p. 86, (quoting St Mary's Ipswich 1849-1954, Souvenir Booklet p. 2.
77 Ibid. 3rd Edition 2018, pp. 112-113.

Reproduced by permission of Fr Denis Long.