sisters are doing it...

..for themselves.

And so they did when in 1889 a small band of Dominican Sisters arrived from New Zealand to set up an order in Western Australia.
Four convents were opened in the state and in 1902 when the Dominican Sisters came under the Bishop of Geraldton the gals bought a struggling pub (as you do) with four acres of land fruit trees and adjacent gardens in Dongara and this became their Mother House The Dongara Priory of Dominics.

The sisters built a college The Dominican Ladies College in 1928 with big airy classrooms and a HUGE verandah housing the dormitories where the girls slept in beds three deep across the verandah (glass shutters closed off the space in winter apparently!) (extra)
For 70 years the school housed and educated girls from farming and gold mining families in the Geraldton Diocese.

We spent the night here in a tall ceiling room...previously a classroom...and what a thrill to be here.
A valiant couple have taken on the job of renovating and giving this glorious building another life (pub to priory and back to pub ) but it is a seriously huge challenge.
Geraldton's cathedral is awash with builders and renovators returning it to its 'original glory'.
The girls efforts could well be taken in hand for much less from the renovating pot and this is just as important.
Surely.