The original statue was donated by the Malycha family to commemorate the arrival of the family’s arrival in Australia, from Poland/Silesia in the 19th Century.

Since then, the statue has been “retreaded” several times, with the penultimate St Joseph coming from the former Catholic Church in Terowie.

School principal, Sister Julianne Murphy, said that the “new, improved model” had been donated by the Order’s Convent in Kensington and that Sister Murphy had travelled to Adelaide to collect him.

Securely strapped in the back seat, and happily “back-seat driving” on his way to Peterborough, Sister Murphy and Saint Joseph were pulled over by a breathalyzer.

Naturally, Sister Murphy “blew zero” but she remarked that St Joseph sitting in the back did raise a few police eyebrows.

Standing on his plinth now gazing benignly at children playing around his feet, St.Joseph seems content even after his brush with the law.