Australian Dictionary of Biography entry: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/strele-anton-4653

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Fr David Strong SJ, The Australian dictionary of Jesuit biography 1848-2015, Second Edition, 2017:
Strele, Anton

Missionary; born Nassereit, Austrian Tyrol, 23 August 1825; died Sevenhill, South Australia, 15 December 1897, aged 72.

Anthony Strele was educated at the Jesuit gymnasium, Innsbruck, before entering the Society at Graz, 14 August 1845. He also completed his juniorate there. He studied philosophy and theology at Laval, France, 1848-54, was ordained, 23 September 1854, and except for tertianship at Baumartenberg, 1858-59, taught in the colleges at Mariaschein, Linz, and Kalksburg, 1856-66. He was sent to Australia, and left London with Matthias Hager, 22 December 1866, arriving in Adelaide, 12 April 1867.

From 1868-82 Strele worked at Sevenhill, and apart from pastoral work around Clare, Farrell Flat and Manoora, he filled various offices in the college: rector, teacher, prefect, minister, professor of philosophy, and novice-master. He was superior of the mission twice, 1870-1873 and 1880-1882, and responsible for the building of St Aloysius' Church. He supervised the building of a separate residence at Georgetown, and the establishment of a Polish settlement at Hill River.

He founded the Northern Territory mission in 1882 with two priests and one brother. He was superior, 1882-90. In 1885 he attended the Plenary Council of Australasia in Sydney, and in 1887 made a begging journey to North America and Europe.

In 1888 he was appointed apostolic administrator of the diocese of Port Victoria and Palmerston upon the resignation of the Abbot Salvado. But by the end of 1890 his health was irretrievably broken. He was replaced as superior of the mission by Donald MacKillop, and in 1892 received medical orders to leave the Territory. He arrived back in Sevenhill, 25 October 1892.

Strele tried then to return to his former pastoral work, and gave several missions and retreats, and even attended, as apostolic administrator, the Plenary Council in Sydney in 1895, but his health declined until his death. He was spared the sadness of the abandonment of the mission that he had established. He was interred in the crypt at Sevenhill.

He was a man of intense zeal, great personal holiness and tireless activity, but these qualities were not matched by the virtue of prudence. John Hinteroecker first aroused his interest in the aborigines, and after his premature death in 1872, Strele took up his scheme of a mission to the aboriginals and ultimately secured the permission of his superiors to found one. Unfortunately, his powers of organisation and administration proved insufficient to the task, and the mission was mismanaged.

His first error was his failure to establish a firmly organized base, either in Austria or Australia, from which the mission could be supported and supplied. Sporadic and intermittent assistance did not help. Money raised was soon spent, and he began begging tours. All during this time, the missionaries were never adequately supplied.

His second error was his failure to make a sound preliminary reconnaissance, which would have prevented his making the first foundation in so unsuitable a place as Rapid Creek. The same mistake was made with the foundation on the Daly River: the men were sent out without exploration having been made, and the land provided by the Government proved quite unsuitable.

Furthermore, Strele squandered what resources he had by making two foundations on the Daly River, as well as retaining Rapid Creek. The result was that his men were overtasked, badly fed and badly housed, forced to 'camp out' in very insanitary conditions and to live for long periods on what they could shoot or pick up in the bush, going for months without flour or even vegetables. Strele asserted that the climate of the Territory was a very healthy one, and this might have been true if suitable food, clothes and housing were provided. Few Jesuits who worked there lived to old age.

(Reproduced by permission of Fr David Strong SJ.)