History

Trinity Catholic College is a Catholic, integrated, co-educational school serving Years 7-13 located in central Dunedin.

Trinity Catholic College is on Rattray Street, on the site that has housed Catholic education in Dunedin since 1871. Originally the site of Christian Brothers’ High School, founded in 1876, it now encompasses the land that has variously accommodated St Dominics College - founded in 1871, St Joseph’s primary school (before its relocation to its current spot on Elm Row) and the Christian Brother’s Junior School (started in 1964 when CBHS became St Paul’s High School, and the building on Tennyson St was dedicated to the Years 5-8 boys). 

There were other significant sites of Catholic education in Dunedin and two of them housed other founding schools of Trinity Catholic Catholic. Moreau College (an amalgamation of the Dominican Sisters’ school St Dominics College, and the Mercy Sisters’ school St Philomena’s College, founded in 1897) was created in 1976 and was set on the St Philomena’s site in McBride St. St Edmund’s School (founded in 1949) was for boys from Y5-8 and served the southern suburbs of Dunedin. 

St Pauls High School, Moreau College and St Edmunds came together in 1989 on the Rattray St site as a Y7-13 co-educational Catholic college called Kavanagh College. 

In 2023 Kavanagh College was renamed Trinity Catholic College.

The College’s founding religious orders - the Dominican Sisters, the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers - were the original founders of the various schools that are part of Trinity Catholic College’s history.