St James Cathedral, Townsville

In 1954, the newly appointed Church of England North Queensland Bishop Ian Shevill arrived in Townsville to an incomplete cathedral — a disappointing ‘half a Cathedral’ (Shevill, 1966, 71). Soon after, he launched a building crusade and a £100,000 War Memorial Appeal Fund for the completion of his cathedral and new permanent churches, under the banner ‘Builders for Christ’. This successful campaign raised £145,000, which enabled many of the diocese’s building projects to be completed during the late1950s and early 1960s. In 1955 he convened the Cathedral Chapter, setting it the task of completing Townsville’s cathedral (Rowland, 1960: 83–84; Shevill, 1966: 68; The Diocese of North Queensland, 1978: 44–57, 16; The Northern Churchman, September 1, 1960: 5).

Though incomplete, Townsville’s ‘half a Cathedral’ could not be considered unremarkable. Indeed, it was the work of one of Australia’s eminent ecclesiastical architectural practices and had been carefully handled. However, its design was restrained due to the diocese’s limited finances — financial support from the state’s other dioceses and others interstate did not amount to much, and assistance from England was even less. 

The first stage of the cathedral was designed by Arthur and Cyril Blacket in 1887, continuing the practice of their father, Edmund Thomas Blacket, who was widely recognised as Australia’s main practitioner of ‘correct’ Gothic architecture (Abrahams, 2012: 87–89). The initial schemes were stone (Figure 1) — their preferred cathedral material — and designed to seat 1000. However, to reduce costs, it was significantly redesigned and pared-back to brickwork. The series of redesigns also saw the deletion of the double roof, double walls, the mechanical ventilation system, and the central tower acting as a ventilation shaft proposed in the Blacket brothers initial design to shade and ventilate the building — their ‘highly experimental’ design strategies to keep the cathedral building cool and dry (‘Saint James’ Cathedral,’ 1978; The Queenslander, 18 July 1885: 107; Donegan, 1993: 39–40, 43). Due to limited finances, only part of the cathedral was built, with a temporary porch and a temporary brick wall constructed to secure the cathedral at the transept walls (Figure 2). Initially only a temporary roof was constructed so it could be opened and used for worship in 1892. Without the nave, there was limited cross-ventilation through the transept’s doors. The earlier criticisms from southerners (noted above) — that the cathedral was overambitious, at this time — seemed to ring true. Paying off the debt for the Nineteenth Century works then took decades, further hindered by tropical cyclones (the 2 largest on 26 January 1896 and 9 March 1903), which significantly damaged the cathedral as well many other churches across the diocese. Fortunately, the replacement of the roof structure and cladding in1903 resembled the Blackets’ earlier design and was purportedly ‘aerodynamically safe in the event of another cyclone’ (Donegan, 1993: 43–44).

 This Queensland collaboration suited Williams. During the late1930s the Melbourne-trained Peter Edward Newell was Williams’ apprentice. Following Newell’s relocation to Brisbane, Williams referred his Queensland clients to Newell’s practice and recommended them to Shevill for the role of diocesan architects (Moore, 2001: i, 16, 22, 117 and 149; Maidment, 2012: 765; Paulsen 2012). Newell would soon also publish on climatically responsive design for Queensland, and spoke on the need for church design to do so too:

Among all the thousands of churches, not more than a few dozen in Australia have made any attempt to take advantage of present day building techniques to develop a religious architecture in keeping with our times and the climate conditions of their locality. …we must not overlook the climatic considerations affecting the expression of the building as well as its function. (Newell, 1954: 18–19)

Newell’s ideas for modern architecture inclusive of passive climatic design responses are subtly evident in St James’s stage II. The design clearly sought to marry into the earlier stage and limit its modern expression — a design dilemma with which many cathedral architects had grappled with globally.

St James’ stage II extended the cathedral’s nave, took its seating capacity to 769, provided a front façade and entry to the cathedral, as well as a bell tower. On its completion, the The Courier-Mail reported the project’s cost as £66,000 (The Courier-Mail, 13 June 1960, 5). The details of the new nave bays largely replicated the Blacket design. However, various modern elements provide clues to identify the post-war from the Nineteenth Century works: in particular, the lower-level metal louvre windows with their exterior precast-concrete grilles to provide cross-ventilation to the nave and the small differences in the brickwork most evident at the transepts’ exterior re-entrant corners. The front façade and bell tower are also clearly modern architectural statements. Erwin Albert Guth’s sculpture ‘The statue of St James’ is proudly mounted to the left side of this front façade, an important work of modern religious artwork itself. Mosaic tiles shimmer within the entry’s recessed and arched niche.

Carpentaria’s All Souls’ Quetta Cathedral, Thursday Island

Opened in 1893, the church was soon elevated to a cathedral in 1900 when the first Bishop, Gilbert White, was appointed to the newly formed diocese. Side aisles were temporarily added in timber before 1905 and then, in 1912–15, replaced with permanent side aisles of concrete construction built to the design of Smith Harrington, an architect who was the then Queensland government inspector of works for Thursday Island (Bayton, 1965: 68, 114; Donegan, 1993: 76–77; Watson and McKay, 1984: 99). The side aisles increased the 80–110 seat capacity to 180–210. Harrington’s design included pairs of doors along the sides of the nave within arched openings, to allow cross-ventilation (Figure 6). However, the 1893 timber-clad wall constructed to secure the front of the cathedral remained, awaiting a masonry front fit for a permanent cathedral.

The mid-1960s stage was designed by Reverend John Bayton, then a Canon and sub‑Dean at the Cathedral. This stage added to the front and side of the cathedral and increased its capacity to 420–50 seats (Figure 8). The project purportedly only cost £4,000 (Bayton, 1965: 111; Donegan, 1993: 91). The extension extended the aisle roofs forward and wrapped them to form a new frontage to the Cathedral, giving a front to the cathedral that had until then been only a simple temporary timber-clad wall. Internal changes were also made at this time in response to international calls for liturgical renewal within the Church of England — as was then occurring across the denominations. The sanctuary space was widened and reordered to extend into the nave. The clergy stalls were moved out of the former sanctuary space, the high altar was positioned forward in the sanctuary, the Bishop’s chair (the cathedra) centred behind the sanctuary, and ambos were positioned either side of the altar.

As an architectural student at Brisbane’s Central Technical College (CTC) and then the University of Queensland (UQ), Bayton worked for Fulton Collin and Associates when it was led by Charles Fulton, who was also the head of school at CTC (Trotter, 2019; Watson, 2012: 264–65). Bayton graduated from the degree course in 1958. Concurrently he pursued his interests in theology and iconography, studying for the priesthood at St Francis Seminary (Milton, Brisbane) and ordained as a Church of England rector in 1957. From 1954 Bayton designed various Queensland churches. His design for the small church of St Luke’s in Kenilworth (1955) was the first in the state to position the altar forward of the liturgical east wall allowing the minister to stand behind it and face the congregation (Bayton, 2019; Daunt, 2020: 72–73; Daunt, 2021: 158, 181–82; Daunt, 2022: 519).

All Souls’ liturgical reordering further develops Bayton’s ideas for modern worship spaces. Responding to emergent liturgical change, he adapted these ideas to suit the small cathedral church. Like Bayton’s prior designs, the mid-1960s extension and alterations of All Souls’ were of modest architectural design in response to its remote tropical island location, nearly non-existent budget, and a local team of volunteers and contractors. Comparatively easy to construct, it used a combination of concrete block and light-weight materials, and incorporated operable louvres for ventilation. Like Bayton’s other designs, artwork was commissioned to complement the project. Stained-glass windows by the Sydney-based artist Stephen Moor (1915–2003) were incorporated above the new entry doors (Daunt, 2021: 524).

Although modern, and liturgically progressive, the project gained little media attention and no mention in the Church’s own Queensland periodical, The Church Chronicle. This was the case, even after both memorial and historical records were restored. More than likely, this was due to the highly critical reception the project seems to have received initially and in subsequent decades. His fellow churchman later wrote: “Bayton made a terrible job on the completion of the Cathedral. He was not an architect” (W.J.A. Daniel’s cited in Palmer, 1985: 16). And one of his successors stated: “we must await the inspired architect (and the funds) who will do just enough demolition, and sensitive modifications and extensions, so that eventually the Cathedral becomes a thing of beauty” (Palmer, 1985: 17). Though recognising the enterprising effort of the project, its low budget and its poor workmanship, it seems they gave little regard to the possibility that Bayton’s design was not realised as he had intended.

A New Catholic Cathedral for Cairns

The first Cairns St Monica’s Catholic church was blessed and opened 10 January 1886, but this timber building was destroyed by a cyclone on 9 February 1927. A new rendered reinforced-concrete two-storey church-school building was opened and blessed in 1927, designed by the Cairns partnership of Lawrence and Lordan (Harry Reginald Lawrence being the likely designer). This second building was elevated to a cathedral on 8 July 1941, when The Vicariate of Queensland (the far-north and Torres Strait Islands) became the diocese of Cairns, though the building was referred to as the pre-cathedral (CCDA, Diocesan History A900 box 6 folder 6). A grander and more substantial design had been prepared by Hennessy, Hennessy, Keesing & Co. in 1926, then the preferred ecclesiastical architects across the state’s Catholic dioceses, especially favoured by Brisbane’s Archbishop James Duhig. But this was abandoned after the cyclone as the most urgent need was to quickly rebuild the school and church buildings.

It was not until the mid-1960s, and several Bishops later, that the ambition to build the cathedral was reinitiated. Taking advantage of government tax deductions for war memorials, Bishop Thomas Vincent Cahill successfully set up the ‘Cairns Catholic War Memorial Cathedral Fund’ in 1964 (CCDA, St Monica’s Cathedral Construction, A300 box 1 folder 1).

The design architect for the new cathedral was Ian Ferrier, who had studied architecture at McGill University in Canada, before migrating to Australia in mid–1953 and arriving in Brisbane in February 1955 (Daunt, 2017: 107). In addition to various churches and chapels, Ferrier had designed St Mary of the Sea Catholic Cathedral in Darwin (1962), which he designed and started the documentation of in 1956–57 while working for the Brisbane practice of J.P. Donoghue, Cusick and Edwards. This led to him acquiring the cathedral commission for his own practise after meeting the Bishop of Cairns in the mid–1960s. Discussions between Bishop Cahill and Ferrier commenced late–1964 and Ferrier produced an initial sketch design in early–1965 (Daunt, 2021: 531; Daunt, 2022: 528). With both Bishop Cahill and Ferrier collaborating for this project, the expectations of their peers were high. For instance, Patrick O’Donnell, the Archbishop of Brisbane, spoke of Bishop Cahill at the twenty-five-year celebration of the Cairns diocese:

His opinions and judgements are valued and sought for in the councils of the Australian Hierarchy. His deep theological insights and his gift of languages proved a most valuable asset to the bishops of Australia during the recent Ecumenical Council. He was our liaison and contact with the hierarchies of Italy, Spain and central Europe. My Lord Bishop, that you have put your hand to the great work of erecting here a Cathedral worthy of the traditions of North Queensland, a monument to the pioneers who laid the foundations of the Church in this now prosperous region, is indeed typical of your zeal, your foresight, your faith in the future of the diocese over which you rule. (Archbishop O’Donnell, August 9, 1966)

During the tender period, The Courier-Mail published a photograph of the model with the caption: ‘The designer, Brisbane architect Mr A. Ian Ferrier has striven to relate contemporary architectural forms with the desired classical atmosphere for the building, which will provide for the requirements of the new liturgical forms’ (The Courier-Mail, July 28, 1966).

For this design, Ferrier took inspiration from a Canadian Synagogue, Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto (1938), by Jack Brenzel of John B. Perkins associates, and the Unity Chapel of Coventry Cathedral (1961) designed by Basil Spence (Gardiner and Hampson, 1999; Ferrier slide collection). In its final form, the cathedral’s height is equivalent to a four-storey building, with tall pre-cast concrete arched windows containing ruby and amber coloured-glass to the front (mostly now replaced with contemporary glass window art pieces), sides, and baptistry. Red bricks manufactured in Mareeba were used externally contrasting the white concrete details and light cream bricks (from Brisbane) that brighten the interior. The wall behind the cathedra also used light cream brick, to not distract from the altar. The cathedral’s nave was wide and column free. The sanctuary measured approximately 50 ft (15.24 m.) square, taking up the front third of the worship space. This generous sanctuary had an island altar for the Bishop to face the people, with the cathedra on the back wall also facing the people. Ferrier designed the marble altar and the majority of the liturgical furnishings. However, Ferrier’s proposals to commission bespoke artwork were dismissed for cheaper and conservative pieces. The stations of the cross and the wooden crucifix figure were purchased by the diocese from religious importer-suppliers (Daunt, 2022: 528).

In 1999, Ferrier’s reflections on the building were mixed. He lamented the design features deleted due to budget constraints and Bishop Cahill’s traditional preferences for art and architecture (Gardiner and Hampson, 1999). As a basilica-type and with a separate baptistry chapel, St Monica’s does not show the same progressiveness evident in Ferrier’s (smaller) church and chapel designs.

St Monica’s foundation stone was laid on 28 May 1967 by Bishop Cahill, with the announcement made that it was to be ‘a War Memorial to the Australian and American Forces who died in the defence of Australia and particularly in the Battle of the Coral Sea.’ On this same occasion the diocese’s status as the only Australian Catholic diocese without a cathedral was emphasised along with the project’s ambitions for the city of Cairns: ‘So the City of Carins will be enhanced not only by the erection of a beautiful building but by becoming a truly Cathedral City’ (J.J. Lander address 28 May 1967, CCDA, St Monica’s Cathedral Construction, A300 box 1 folder 2). St Monica’s was opened and consecrated on 8 July 1968, with the majority of the country’s Archbishops, Bishops, and the Cardinal in attendance, as well as ex-servicemen, many of the city’s leaders and politicians, and a large press contingent from both television and radio.

The Cathedral is an evolving piece of architecture. One of the most contentious 1960s design features has been supplanted — the ruby glass windows have been replaced with dramatic bespoke glass artworks created between 1995 and 2018. The Sunshine Coast based glass artists Gerry Cummins and Jill Stephs designed and installed the ‘Peace Windows’ (1995) and then the ‘Creation Windows’ (1998, 1999 and 2000) (Douglas, 2012: 7–9). In 2018 the Baptistery was refurbished and new windows were installed to this space, too. These windows depict a creation narrative of the universe, but with reference to North Queensland. Arguably, the artistry of these windows both competes with and enhances the cathedral’s modern architecture.

Conclusion

These three 1960s North Queensland cathedral projects were achieved with remarkable speed, in part due to their small size and economic constraints — a very different outcome to the modern, highly symbolic, landmark cathedrals built abroad in the post-war period in established dioceses of the Global North. 

A priority for the region’s Bishops was ‘completed’ cathedrals, as these young dioceses strove to establish and develop a breath of ecclesiastical infrastructures across their territories. This highly developmentally driven outlook enabled the region’s Bishops to accept realistic, ‘municipal’ scaled, projects that adopted the emergent ideas of modern architecture, as opposed to the expensive and time-consuming ecclesiastical architecture of neo-Gothic designs. Arguably, together with the remarkable number of churches built in the same period, the region’s post-war cathedrals are also emblematic of an ambition different from that of North Queensland’s nineteenth-century Bishops, who aimed to start building worthy cathedrals without necessarily completing them.

These were highly challenging projects, though not for the same reasons as cathedrals of other locations. The projects were very important to their development-driven Bishops, and architecturally challenging. The need to design for the region’s tropical (hot and humid) climate, as well as its comparatively few skilled tradesmen, and disappointingly limited economic means presented significant hurdles. For the architects these were career defining projects, even though they were comparatively small cathedrals. Despite criticisms of their work, and a lack of the same kind of recognition given to larger and earlier designs, they each rose to the challenges of modern cathedral design.

Acknowledgements

This article further develops research previously published as Lisa Marie Daunt, ‘Tradition and Modern Ideas: building post-war cathedrals in Queensland and adjoining territories.’ In David Kroll, James Curry, Madeline Nolan (eds), Ultra: Positions and Polarities Beyond Crisis, Proceedings of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia and New Zealand: 38. Adelaide: SAHANZ, 2022, 516–31.

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