A Brief History of the Parish

On 3rd of  February 1962 Father John Brennan was appointed Administrator of Our Lady of the Way Parish Kingsbury. Fr Brennan started with 3 and half acres of land and an old army hut and within a year transformed the parish, comprising 175 Catholic families, by erecting a Church-Hall and School.

The foundations of the parish were laid with the vision, passion, love and humility of a man willing to nurture and support a young and growing community in a new parish.

Fr Brennan noted the young mothers wheeling their babies in prams around the area and he named the Parish of Our Lady Of The Way Kingsbury in honour of them.

The new church was blessed in November 1962.

Parish Priests:

1965 Fr Dunlop was parish priest of Kingsbury and Bundoora.

1967  Fr Leo Long was appointed PP.

In 1967 the Order of the Servants of Mary (OSM) predominately a Chaplaincy Order, approached the Archdiocese for a school. As La Trobe University was being built, the Servites (as they are known by) were appointed to be Chaplains there.  They were given the Parish of OLW to live and also appoint a Parish Priest to serve the community. In January 1968 three Servite priests came to live in Kingsbury.  Fr P Boyle, Fr V Harkins and Fr P MacNamara.

1968 Fr Patrick Boyle, OSM was appointed PP.

During the Years the Servites served in Kingsbury other priests from the Order acted as Parish Priest while the PP was on sab

batical. This included Fr Vincent Harkins.

1974 (to be confirmed) - Fr Myles Lynch was appointed PP and was the longest serving Servite at OLW.

When the Servites moved away from the Parish Fr John Riordan was appointed as Parish Priest.

In 1996 following the sudden death of Fr Riordan, Fr Vincent Piele was appointed Administrator.  The Parish was under threat of being closed down.

After much rallying by the Parishioners to keep our Parish, Fr Terry Bergin was appointed Parish Priest.

1996 Fr Terry Bergin was appointed Parish Priest and retired in 2021 accomplished 25 years of service at Our Lady of The Way.

2021 - 2022 Parish was in transittion of different administrations.

2022 - 2023 Father Trac Nguyen was appointed as parish administrator to look after our church and did a wonderful job in strenghthen our leadership team and prepare for new Mission in which Holy Name of Preston East parish joined in.

2023 Father John O'Connor was appointed as parish priest of Our Lady of The Way Kingsbury and Holy Name of Preston East.