By Caroline Smith
When St Mary’s Cathedral opened its doors as a completed structure in December 2009, it was a notable event for Perth’s Catholic community, showing how 160 years of history could be unified and reflected in one building.
The project itself – which took three years of construction and six of planning – easily merits a book, but John Winship’s Our Cathedral: A History of St Mary’s Cathedral Perth, Western Australia covers much greater territory than this.
Published in 2010, Our Cathedral follows the story of the Catholic community through its built environment, beginning with the first significant structure, St John’s Pro Cathedral, which opened in 1845 in Victoria Square.
Mr Winship said he was drawn to the project through a longstanding fascination with cathedrals, stained glass and architecture in general.
“The book was commissioned by the former St Mary’s Cathedral Dean, Monsignor McDonald,” he said.
“He had already asked me to do tours of the Cathedral so, from that, I became interested, learned more about the building itself and this, in turn, made me consider writing the book.”
In the course of his research, Mr Winship said he realised that personal stories connected to the Cathedral were just as important as the architectural history, and this was reflected in his choice of title.
“As I gathered stories of the people who were involved in the Archdiocese, I realised that this was really ‘our’ Cathedral, so that’s what I called the book,” he said.
“I don’t think people just want to know about the bricks and mortar of the building, but also about the history of the Catholic community in Perth. That’s why, at the end of every chapter, I had a section called ‘May they be remembered’ which highlights the human stories of the Archdiocese.”
One notable story revolves around funding problems faced by the young diocese in the 1840s and 50s, particularly with the establishment of new communities in Mt Barker, New Norcia and Port Essington (now in the northern Territory).
Our Cathedral gives detailed accounts of this situation, including the controversy surrounding Perth’s first bishop, John Brady, who gave up his position in 1852 following disagreements with New Norcia’s Dom Joseph Serra over the aforementioned funding issue.
However, the book also pays attention to the architectural and musical features of the cathedrals, starting from the first one built on the current site in 1865, and named for the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
It also recounts a specifically architectural debate around the proposal for an entirely different building, put forward by architect-priest Father John Hawes in the 1920s.
Fr Hawes – who designed the Geraldton cathedral in 1915 – was inspired by the Romanesque styles of southern Europe, and proposed a similar design for Perth, but this was ultimately rejected in favour of a plan to keep, but extend, the existing Northern Gothic building.
Unsurprisingly, most of the book’s later material is dedicated to the most recent building work, which included a new nave, altar and Stations of the Cross, as well as the addition of Aboriginal art and a memorial garden in the grounds.
The book acknowledges the achievements of this project, particularly its ability to unite the ‘unresolved sum of disparate architectural parts’ that comprised the pre-2009 Cathedral, as well as increasing its seating capacity and providing for changes to Church liturgical practices in the post-Vatican II era.
There are still copies available of ‘Our Cathedral’. For more information email communications@perthcatholic.org.au