On June 5, 1880 the Sisters purchased the home of Mr G. Dutton-Green in Angas Street, Adelaide and established a Mother House under the leadership of Mother Evangelista. The largest room of the house was converted into a chapel and the stables and coach-house behind the Dutton-Green house were converted into boarding accommodation for poor girls and orphans. On August 12, 1880 this temporary House of Mercy was opened, offering these young women training in domestic service to work in the homes of Adelaide’s wealthy. This House of Mercy proved so successful that a new building, St. Philomena’s House of Mercy, was erected and opened in 1884. The building adjoined and ran parallel to St. Francis Xavier Hall.
As they did in Buenos Aries, the Sisters offered religious instruction to adults as well as visiting prisoners and the sick, but the real need in Adelaide was for education.