Christian Brothers cry poor to abuse survivors after transferring elite schools for $1

The Christian Brothers in Australia transferred some of its most valuable colleges to a separate trust for just $1 each but now claims it will be broke by September and unable to compensate hundreds of survivors of shocking clerical abuse.

At least three prominent schools in NSW, including Waverley College in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, were passed by the Catholic order in 2018 to the Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia.

Documents obtained by this masthead reveal other NSW schools including St Patrick’s College in Strathfield and St Pius X College in Chatswood were also transferred that year for the nominal consideration of $1 each.

The move came just months before state governments across Australia removed the controversial Ellis Defence, which had limited civil claims against churches since 2007.

In Victoria, the transfers of prestigious St Kevin’s College in Toorak, Geelong’s St Joseph’s College and Parade College in Bundoora, were all made in June 2015 – just three months before the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse first recommended the Ellis Defence be dismantled.

It is unclear if any symbolic payment was made during the restructure in Victoria, with the Christian Brothers and Edmund Rice Education Australia (EREA) both refusing to answer questions about the transfers.

However, the Christian Brothers said that under a scheme of arrangement or liquidation, the property transfers would be scrutinised.

Last week, the Oceania Province of the Christian Brothers announced it was on the brink of financial collapse, conceding the value of its remaining assets would not cover monthly compensation payments of nearly $6 million a month to survivors.

However, the Trustees of Edmund Rice Education Australia appears in robust financial health, with more than $345 million in cash and property valued at $2.28 billion, according to its latest financial report.

The schools charge fees of between $8000 and $23,000 a year. St Kevin’s has since broken away from Edmund Rice.

The transfer of schools between the two entities has fuelled claims by abuse survivors and their lawyers that the Christian Brothers engaged in a deliberate strategy to shield its assets from civil claims.

Lawyer Grace Wilson from Rightside Legal is representing a former student at another Edmund Rice school, St Patrick’s College in Ballarat, who was repeatedly abused by prolific paedophile Brother Edward “Ted” Dowlan in 1974.

His case was due to proceed to trial this month but has been thrown into limbo after lawyers for the Christian Brothers requested more t