The first Jesuits to set foot in Australia travelled from Austria and arrived in the Clare Valley in South Australia in 1848. The Jesuit property was bought at Sevenhill in 1850, the first vines were planted shortly afterwards to produce sacramental wine. The construction of St Aloysius' Church commenced in the 1850s and was completed in 1875.

Jesuits priests and brothers have lived here ever since, looking after the spiritual needs of local Catholic immigrants and their descendants over the years.

On the Sevenhill property today there is the working winery making sacramental and table wine, the Ignatian Spiritualty Retreat house, and St Aloysius Church, the centre of the Sevenhill/Clare Catholics parish in the Adelaide Archdiocese.  The Jesuit community is also responsible for the parish of Riverton/Manoora in the nearby Gilbert Valley.