A Catholic priest has been charged in Sydney for alleged sex abuse against multiple children at a Southern Highlands boarding school during the 1980s.

Police say that Father Anthony Caruana, 77, indecently assaulted five children aged 12 to 15 when he was a dormitory manager, rugby coach and band teacher at Chevalier College.

Chevalier College in Bowral. Credit:Peter Rae

The abuse allegedly took place between 1982 and 1988.

Detectives launched Strike Force Caber last July to investigate reports of sexual and indecent assaults at the Burradoo boarding school during the 1980s.

Their inquiries led them to arrest Father Caruana at a home in Kensington in Sydney's eastern suburbs on Friday.

Police charged the man with six sexual assaults and acts of indecency on a child younger than 16 and two offences of gross indecency on a boy.

He was granted strict conditional bail and will face Waverley Local Court on May 22.