On Sunday hundreds of people gathered in Penola, South Australia, to commemorate a park to the memory of a remarkable priest, Julian Tenison Woods, who travelled Australia extensively in his all too brief life (he died before his 57th birthday).
Speakers at the event attested Woods' great contribution to science, to Catholic education in South Australia, and to the development of the Sisters of St Joseph. I went to acknowledge his relationship with the Jesuits, his concern for the plight of Indigenous Australians, and his contribution to the fledgling church in remoter parts of Australia where new migrants were doing it tough trying to live a life of faith and service.
Woods' early attempts at religious life took him to the Passionists and the Marists. Only after migrating to Australia and deciding to seek out his brother in Adelaide did he make sustained contact with the Jesuits — at Sevenhill in the Clare Valley. Fr Tappeiner SJ accompanied him on the path to prompt ordination.
He befriended Fr John Hinteroecker SJ who, like Woods, was a very European naturalist. These two made scientific expeditions together and maintained contact until Hinteroecker died in 1872.
In later years Woods became suspicious of Jesuit spirituality which he thought diluted the original vision of poverty and obedience of the Sisters of St Joseph. But he always held the Jesuits he knew in high regard.
During his ten years at Penola, Woods encountered the plight of Aboriginal Australians in the 19th century colonial Australian bush. During his last year there, the Border Watch sent a correspondent to report on the situation in Penola. The correspondent reported on the three major grievances of the local community as expressed by Woods. The main complaint pertained to the mail delivery service. The third — education — Woods would later address once
he was transferred to Adelaide as Director of Catholic Education for
the colony.
But the second grievance concerned 'the state of the aboriginal population, which I am assured is a disgrace to a Christian community'.
By way of follow up, Woods wrote a lengthy letter to the editor about the treatment of Indigenous Australians. 'Your correspondent has called attention to the sad state of the natives in this district,' he wrote. 'Well I say most conscientiously that a more hideous crying evil does not exist among Christians. These