This cottage was built by Thomas O Callaghan about 1861. O Callaghan had come out from Ireland to South Australia in 1857. In 1859 he married Mary Ahern, who had also come out from Ireland with her parents in 1855. O Callaghan worked on the roads, and from about 1866 to 1874 he was working in the Mount Compass area.

For the latter part of this time he rented the house to the Sisters of St Joseph, who conducted their school and convent from here. Mary MacKillop co-founded the Institute of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1867, in that same year the Josephites established in Yankalilla their first country convent and school outside of Adelaide. The first teachers were Sister Clare (Mary Wright) and Sister Francis (Julia Fitzgerald). The plaques in front of the house commemorate this period and also the canonisation of Mary MacKillop in 2010.

Photograph 2023 by Paul Murphy