Where Others Saw Need, Sr Agnes Saw Possibility
Sr Agnes Murphy RSM, a stalwart mainstay of the Shepparton community, has this week returned to Essendon after ten years of remarkable service in the Diocese of Sandhurst.
A Sister of Mercy for over sixty-four years, Sr Agnes has spent a lifetime, of what she calls ‘privilege’, walking alongside “those who will have me walk beside them”. She has dedicated her life to nurturing the potential in young people across cultures, with a firm conviction that people flourish when their culture, identity and lived experience are respected and understood.
Her ministry as an educator and trainer of teachers has taken her from Melbourne to Papua New Guinea, to working with Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Victoria in Melbourne and, most recently, establishing culturally safe education programs for Aboriginal children in the Shepparton area.
Now, at a time she describes as both practical and emotional, she is returning to the neighbourhood where she grew up.
Sr Agnes was raised in Essendon in a devout Catholic family and lived “very conveniently” across the road from the Parish Church. Choosing religious life was a natural progression and didn’t surprise anyone in her family. “I had a very religious widowed Aunt who was a great influence on me, and many of my cousins were already religious sisters; it was normal in our family as a way of life,” reflects Sr Agnes.
Return to Sandpiper 124 (19 June 2026).
A year of teaching at St Oliver Plunkett in Pascoe Vale clarified her desire to enter religious life.
“My main purpose was to work effectively with children, and I came to realise that I would be best able to do that by becoming a Mercy Sister.”
Although Sister Agnes spent her school years being taught by other Sisters it was during her years at Teachers’ College, witnessing the practical, individualised kindness of the Mercy Sisters, that an affinity with their Charism and the idea of becoming a Mercy Sister consolidated.
Sr Agnes entered the Convent in 1959, made her first vows in 1962 and her final vows of Poverty, Chastity, Obedience and Service in 1965. In making the fourth vow, she explicitly committed her life, time and resources to the service, advocacy and prayer for the poor, the sick and the uneducated, something unique to the Sisters of Mercy.
Long before arriving in Shepparton, Sr Agnes had already built an extraordinary ministry overseas. She was grateful for the developments after Vatican II when many Religious Orders rewrote their constitutions, reworking ideas about authority, community and identity. “As far as I’m concerned, these were all very good developments,” exclaims Sr Agnes. “It allowed us to work more closely with people and, for me, gave me the freedom to serve in Papua New Guinea, which had been a dream of mine.”
Sister Agnes was an experienced teacher when she went to Papua New Guinea, armed with a Science degree and a Master’s in Education. She worked in the country for 27 years, more than half of the time in the Highlands and eight years on the north coast, teaching at high school and tertiary levels. A highlight for Sr Agnes personally was training future local teachers and helping to promote vocations to the Sisters of Mercy, "It was very important to teach local women to be teachers," she explained.
Her years in Papua New Guinea reinforced a lesson that would shape all her future ministry – the importance of listening before acting. "For me, it was trying to understand the culture of where I was. There are eight hundred and twenty-six languages in Papua New Guinea, which means there are eight hundred and twenty-six cultures."
After 27 years serving in Papua New Guinea, Sr Agnes returned to Melbourne to work with Aboriginal Catholic Ministry Victoria. The Rumbalara Football and Netball Club had expressed a need for a culturally safe homework club for Aboriginal children in Shepparton. So, Sister Agnes thought, “Why not?” She sought permission from the Mercy Sisters and the Bishop of Sandhurst and moved to Shepparton to make it happen. "It was the Aboriginal people who wanted the homework club. It was their choice, but one we could take on so easily," she said.
With Rumbalara, she established the Gowola Homework Club, using the Yorta Yorta word gowola, meaning kindness, which was chosen as the closest expression to mercy. Speaking about the Gowola Homework Club, she said its success was about far more than academic support.
"The students know they're safe. They're in a cultural setting. It's their place. That's the best way of putting it – they're culturally safe," she explains. “We use their Football and Netball Club rooms, so the children are in their place; they’re in their own familiar cultural setting, a place they frequent on weekends with family to play or watch sport.”
“There are a lot of Aboriginal people in Shepparton, and they have their own unique culture which needs to be esteemed, but for many they experience the exact opposite … the old prejudices haven’t died, all the old misunderstandings haven’t changed.”
Sr Agnes has earned a great respect from the Shepparton community and especially its 2000-strong Aboriginal Community. She advocated for and helped establish an in-school tutoring program for Aboriginal students in Shepparton and other towns in regional Victoria.
As well as this, she volunteered at Notre Dame College’s McAuley Champagnat Program, assisting students whose educational needs were not being met in mainstream schooling . For many years she also served in prison ministry at the now closed Dhurringile Prison.
Underlying all of Sr Agnes’ work is a deep belief in the dignity, worth and potential of every person and the importance of understanding culture.
As she prepares to leave Shepparton, Sr Agnes says she has been overwhelmed by the many farewells and expressions of gratitude from the community.
Those who have worked alongside her say her contribution to the Diocese of Sandhurst will be sorely missed, but her influence will continue to flourish in the lives she has touched and in the programs she helped to establish.
After a lifetime of service, Sr Agnes herself describes it all with characteristic humility – as an "absolute privilege".
PS: Sr Agnes hopes to continue her interest in writing and having more time for prayer.
Image above: Sr Agnes with fellow Religious Sisters from various denominations at the 2026 Chrism Mass at Sacred Heart Cathedral.