The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, often called the Josephites (Brown Joeys), were founded in Penola, South Australia in 1866 by an Australian woman Mary MacKillop, and an English priest Reverend Julian E Tenison Woods.

From the beginning the Sisters lived among the ordinary people in houses of two or three throughout the various colonies, providing education and support for the children and families living in isolated areas and city slums.

The Centre of the Congregation is at Mary MacKillop Place, Mount Street North Sydney where Mary MacKillop's tomb is enshrined in the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel.

Today there are about a thousand Sisters of St Joseph living and working throughout Australia (South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia) and New Zealand, as well as Ireland and Peru. In all these places they are challenged to live a common vision:

Wherever we are,
whoever we are,
whatever we do
we are called
to relieve suffering
and bring hope.

This is a contemporary expression of Mary MacKillop's motto: 'Never see a need without doing something about it'.