Near the southern side of the front of St Mary's Catholic Church at West Wyalong is a large Interpretative Sign with the following information about the immigrant Father Thomas Mullins, and the Dedicated Tree that is behind the sign. It reads:
Father Thomas Mullins - in uniform
The Soldier Priest and St Mary's Olive Tree
This olive tree of St Mary's parish, grown from the Mother tree at Ardlethan was planted by former Parish Priest, Father Kevin Barry-Cotter, as a monument to Father Thomas Mullins.
A fitting gesture as the Mother tree itself grew from a seed (of the olive trees at the Garden of Gethsemane) brought back by Father Thomas Mullins, on his return from World War 1 as Parish Priest of Barmedman and Ardlethan.
Thomas Mullins was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1876. He came to Australia as a young priest in 1900 and was Parish Priest of Barmedman and Ardlethan and all in between. Father Tom, as he soon became known [and] became distinguished by his prowess as a horseman, and was often seen making around his large parish either in his buggy and pair or on his horse.
Such was the dedication of this young man that he volunteered in May 1915 as a chaplain and was appointed to the 12th Light Horse. He was then assigned to the 5th Light Horse until the Armistice. All through the Palestine campaign, and to a man, the Light Horse man, regardless of rank or creed remember with reverence the valiant Padre Mullins. He was awarded the Military Cross in January 1918 and was mentioned in dispatches on four occasions.
Father Tom's Military Cross citation:
At Gaza in 1918 this Padre showed conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. In severe fighting at the back of Gaza, he was all the time up with the men in front, attending to the wounded and the burial of the dead. He displayed great fearlessness and was right in the fighting line. His conduct has been the same on all occasions.
In dispatches:
This officer as Padre of the Regiment exhibited splendid courage and devotion to duty. For weeks he never left the trenches and lived and slept at the clearing station.
In 1919 he was repatriated to the 14th Australian General Hospital at Cairo - a victim of malaria. After the war he returned to Ardlethan, with him came two little seeds from Gethsemane which he planted and cultivated.
A study by the National Research Council of Italy in 2012 found that several of the olive trees in Gethsemane are amongst the oldest known to science. Dates of 1092, 1166 and 1198 CE were obtained by carbon dating older parts of the trunks of three trees.
DNA tests confirm that the Ardlethan trees were originally planted from the same parent plant.
Upon his return, Father Mullins worked tirelessly in his parish; the Convent of the Little Flower and the school of St Joseph were built under his supervision in Ardlethan. In 1926 he built the Church of St Therese in Barellan.
However the malaria contracted in Palestine was gradually sapping his energy, and on Christmas Eve 1938 he recited for the last time the eternal Introibo ad altare Dei (I will go up the altar of God) which commences the Eternal Sacrifice that he loved so well.
Father Thomas Mullins passed away on the 14th January 1939 and he was buried in the Ardlethan cemetery. A moving tribute was printed in the Reveille by Lieut. Colonel Sir Donald Cameron, Commander of the Regiment.
'It was my privilege to command this regiment (Fifth Australian Light Horse Regiment) from the time we left Australia in 1915 until the time that it was disbanded in 1919. I knew Padre Mullins as well as any member of it. He was a gallant soul, absolutely fearless in the face of the enemy, broadminded and tolerant always, and blessed to a marked degree with those gifts of wit and humour - priceless attributes on active service and so distinctive of his race.
He was a lover of horses and a good horseman. I can still hear him now; riding neck by neck with those gallant young troopers that it was my privilege to command - across the Desert of Sinai, through Palestine over The Jordan and the Mountains of Moab and Gilead to Amman. Through all the years of service together I had only complaint against our Padre - I never succeeded in persuading my old friend that, during an engagement, there was a proper place for non-combatants.
In 1956 a white marble altar incorporating the Military Cross of Father Mullins was installed at Ardlethan Catholic Church in his honour.
[On the right-hand side of the sign is a comprehensive alphabetical list of the local Catholics that went to World War One.]
Address: 47 Church St West Wyalong, NSW, 2671, Australia
Visited: 0835, Tuesday, 22 May, 2018