If information is required about Catholic pioneers near Bulla, the place to look is Kathleen Fanning's website about the Fanning family. A "Fanning,Bulla" search brought several results including:

Irish Settlement at Bulla Victoria Australia | Fanning Family ...
www.fanningfamilyhistory.com/irish-settlement-bulla-victoria

It is likely that many of the Irish pioneers had first tried their luck at the diggings. The Daniel family of "Narbonne" near Daniels Rd (Melway 177 K6)hosted many new chums before they set off for the diggings. Mrs Daniel
was a widow and shrewdly explained to her guests that they'd need to build up their muscles by practising the art of digging. "Narbonne " was highly cultivated!

In researching Bulla pioneers,I came across this website, which gives fantastic information about Irish pioneers from Footscray to the Sunbury and Broadmeadows areas (even Portland)BUT HAS A DANGEROUS FLAW.

KEILOR BAPTISMS - Freepages - Ancestry.com
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/.../Keilor/KEILBAPT.htm

Many of the Irish diggers, after the alluvial gold had been found, did not have the resources to sink shafts, so they would have walked towards Melbourne with empty bellies looking for employment. This time,in 1858-9, they were in luck. The Mt Alexander (Castlemaine)and Murray River railway was in construction and the workforce was largely comprised of their countrymen. So they would have found work pushing the line through the parish of Holden (Diggers Rest), Keilor Road Station (Sydenham) and on to Sunbury.

St Augustine's Keilor was started a few years before this time by local Catholics. Connor and Phelan were spirit merchants who received the grant for Spring Park,just east of the A.J.Davis Reserve on Keilor Rd and Connor was also granted much of "Keilor Binn Farm" which was part of the Doutta Galla portion of Keilor Township. Connor bought the rest of this farm but lost it to Hugh Glass by 1868. Keilor publican,Matthew Goudie,later came into possession and when his daughter married John Dodd who became owner,she insisted that it be called "Brimbank".

George Dodd, another trustee of the St Augustine's site, was originally a quarryman so he was well qualified to oversee construction. The related Dodds and Delaheys occupied land between North Pole (Milleara)Road and the river, including the part of today's Brimbank Park south of the E-W high tension power line.

When construction of the railway began, the number of worshippers increased dramatically! This fact has been overlooked in the following article but was emphasised in one of the Keilor centenary souvenirs.

About St Augustine's ? St Augustine's 150th Anniversary
staugustines150th.com/about-st-augustines/

The history of St Augustine's Catholic Church in Keilor is as old as Keilor itself, even older!
St Augustine's Church Keilor 1863-2013.JPG (photo.)
Both Keilor and St Augustine's celebrate their 150th anniversary in 2013; but for the genesis of St Augustine's Church we need to go back even further.

A large proportion of the population in the area now known as Keilor were Irish Catholics, and as they settled down to a life far from their homeland and loved ones, they sought spiritual as well as physical comfort. Thus it was that the first Parish Priest, Father Matthew Downing, came to Keilor in July 1854 to set up the Keilor Mission. Matthew Downing was born in County Kerry in 1810, was ordained in 1837, and spent time in Italy and Ireland before coming to Hobart in January 1849 to serve as a penal chaplain. Much of his time there was spent at the convict prison in Port Arthur. By August 1852 he had moved to Victoria and in November 1852 the goldfields of Ballarat, where he remained until July 1854, when he came to Keilor.

The new Keilor Mission initially took in Flemington, Moonee Ponds, Essendon, Broadmeadows, Keilor, Sunbury, Mickleham and Darraweit Guim, and was then joined by Bulla Bulla in February 1855.

In those days Father Downing celebrated Mass in a number of venues, but it was his vision to build a Church at Keilor in honour of St Augustine, the patron saint of his order. In January 1855, five trustees of the Keilor Church Reserve were approved: Father Downing, Bishop James Goold (first bishop of Melbourne), Patrick Phelan, Owen Connor and George Dodd (who became a key person in the development not only of the Church but of the Keilor area in general).

Building work commenced in 1857, with Mr Dodd appointed Foreman of Works.

The bluestone for the Church was quarried locally, but construction was slow, in part due to financial recession in the times, but also due to the lack of labour (as many men were attracted to the goldfields at Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine).

It would take six long years before St Augustine's was finally completed.

By then Father Downing had transferred to Williamstown, to be succeeded by Father Patrick Madden and then Father James Moore. Father Moore was in residence when the Church was finally completed and on Sunday, 15 November 1863 St Augustine's Church was opened and blessed by Bishop Goold.

WHAT IS THE FLAW IN THE ST.AUGUSTINE'S BAPTISMAL REGISTER?
It was not until I looked at the Crotty entries that I realised why the Register didn't make sense. The columns are headed:
SURNAME; CHILD; D.O.B.; FATHER; MOTHER; CHRISTENING DATE; RESIDED

The Crotty entries read:
CROTTY JAMES MAURICE 11.08.1864 MAURICE McCORMICK, MARY 19.09.1864 KEILOR

CROTTY MARY 15.08.1866 MAURICE McCORMACK, MARY 16.09.1866 KEILOR

CROTTY MICHAEL PATRICK 17.11.1861 MAURICE McCORMACK, MARY 06.12.1861 KEILOR

The flaw is that the father is given the maiden name of the mother. This probably applies to all entries.
The last Crotty entry should read:
CROTTY, Michael Patrick; 17-11-1861; Maurice; Mary (nee McCormack); 6-12-1861; Keilor.

Maurice Crotty worked on the Brannigans' "St John's Hill" at Melway 384 J5 when he came to Australia. The McCormacks had fled Tasmania because they were wanted for smuggling in Catholic priests. They leased a 44 acre farm between the east end of Annandale Rd and an eastern extension of Sharps Rd (the DouttaGalla /Tullamarine parish boundary.) One of the McCormack boys was involved in the hanging of an aborigine at Keilor bridge and fled to Corryong to escape reprisal. His sister, Mary, who had married Maurice Crotty and moved onto The Springs,just across Fosters Rd(now Keilor Park Drive)in 1860 knew of a revenge plan so she made haste to Corryong and, bravely placing her body between her brother and the aborigines,persuaded them to spare his life.
(SOURCES: VICTORIA AND ITS METROPOLIS, Joe Crotty and his nephew, Glenn (Cotchen?), Mary Crotty's diary.)
See my FOSTER, SHARP, CROTTY journal for further details.

Although the Brannigans and Maurice Crotty probably attended Mass at "Narbonne",it is likely that this did not occur every week and that Maurice Crotty and Mary McCormack had first met at St Augustines.

JUST REMEMBER
the surname of the father is the same as that of the child and the surname following the father's given name is actually the mother's maiden name.