History

In the early 1970s, a small group of Christian parents came together with a desire to establish a school that would educate, train and care for students based on the gospel of Jesus Christ. In October 1977, the Darwin Christian Schools Association was formally incorporated. It had 34 members and nine elected board directors.

The Northern Territory Government offered the Association a block of land on McMillians Road, where the Coptic Church now sits. But when the directors visited the site, they found the land covered in 50mm of water. As drainage options were being explored, a prayer march was organised. 

Unbeknownst to the prayer group, however, the wrong address was advertised, and everyone marched and prayed around a block different to the one the Association had been granted. The mistake was discovered but soon forgotten as the Association realised it had to decline the government’s offer of land. The cost of installing drainage was too great for its modest budget. 

The government’s second offer – Carpentaria College (now Haileybury) – was also declined due to the extensive work needed to repair the damage caused to the College by Cyclone Tracy. Out of options, the Association approached the Anglican Church about an empty block of land it owned on McMillians Road. It had far less drainage problems and the church agreed to surrender the title of the land so it could be transferred to Darwin Christian Schools Association. It was the same block of land the prayer group had mistakenly marched around.