The first parish school administered by Loreto in Australia, St. Joseph’s, opened in Lyons Street in March 1877 when M. Gonzaga Barry took charge of the parish school which was situated in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and had previously been run by secular teachers.

1877. Gonzaga Barry built a weatherboard primary school on the Lyons Street side of the Dawson Street land and the pupils were transferred from the Cathedral to this school on the Feast of St. Joseph 1877.
1878. Hilda Benson, graduate of Notre Dame College, Liverpool, was first Principal and organised the school along the lines of Notre Dame Schools in England. Trainees from Teachers’ Training College at Dawson St. did their teaching practice there.

In 1985 St. Joseph’s amalgamated with the Christian Brothers’ Primary School becoming St. Patrick’s Primary School and moved to its Drummond Street site.