In 1681, Fr
Vittorio Riccio OP of
Manila was appointed Prefect Apostolic of
Terra Australis. He died in 1685.
Fr James Dixon, the first Catholic priest permitted to minister in Australia, was briefly appointed Prefect Apostolic of New Holland in 1803. It was the first official Catholic appointment in Australia. The Prefecture was established in 1816 as an
Apostolic Prefecture (missionary pre-diocesan jurisdiction; exempt, i.e. directly subject to the Holy See, not part of any
ecclesiastical province) in Australia, a territory split off from the then
Apostolic Vicariate of the London District (in still missionary England; of a higher pre-diocesan rank, entitled to a
titular bishop).
Fr Jeremiah O'Flynn was appointed and arrived in Sydney but was soon expelled by
Governor Macquarie as he lacked government authorisation. On 4 April 1819, it was suppressed and its territory merged into the then
Apostolic Vicariate of Cape of Good Hope and adjacent territories (in South Africa, across the Indian Ocean; now Archdiocese of Cape Town). In 1834, it would be de facto restored (still from the Cape Vicariate) as
Apostolic Vicariate of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land, the precursor of the present Metropolitan
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. == See also ==