Patrick Brisbane

Patrick Brisbane (1926 – 8 November 1974) was the first Aboriginal Australian to be ordained a priest in the Anglican Church of Australia (then called the Church of England in Australia) in 1970.^[1][2]

Brisbane was born in 1926 in the tribal bushland of the Atampaya people, but brought up at Injinoo (then called Cowal Creek) when members of his tribe settled there.^[3] Brisbane was educated at Cowal Creek to Year 5 Standard.^[4] For 15 years he was a pearl diver.^[5]

Brisbane had felt a calling to ordination since his schooldays.^[6] He trained for ordination at St Paul's Theological College, Moa.^[7] He was ordained deacon in 1969 and priest in 1970, by the Bishop of Carpentaria, the Rt Rev Eric Hawkey.^[8] Alan Gill, the religious affairs correspondent of The Sydney Morning Herald, described Brisbane's ordination as a priest as "perhaps the most momentous - if least reported - event in Australian Anglican history".^[9] Brisbane's importance to Australian Anglican history has been little recognised, but it was sufficiently significant that the Queensland Minister for Aboriginal and Island Affairs, Nev Hewitt, attended the ordination.^[10] The first Aboriginal Australian to be ordained a deacon in the Anglican Church had been the Rev James Noble in 1925, but Noble never proceeded on to ordination as a priest.^[11] The first Torres Strait Islanders to be ordained priests in the Anglican Church were the Rev Joseph Lui and the Rev Poey Passi in 1925.

Brisbane was a curate at St Michael's Church at Agenehambo, near Popondetta, in Papua New Guinea, 1969–70,^[12] and then Curate at Lockhart River from 1971.^[13] The former Bishop of Carpentaria, the Rt Rev Tony Hall-Matthews, credits Brisbane with having taught him much about Aboriginal culture at Normanton.^[14] Brisbane then returned to his community at Injinoo, where he was Priest in Charge.^[15]

Brisbane was married to Tuam, and had two children.^[16] He died in 1974, and was buried in the church at Injinoo.^[17] When that building was replaced by a new church in 1977, his remains were translated to it.^[18] A new tombstone was installed in 1992.^[19]