page_title: St Mary's Cathedral, Perth
section_title: Second stage: 1930 to 1999
hierarchical_section_title: St Mary's Cathedral, Perth / History / Second stage: 1930 to 1999
caption_attribution_description: English: St Mary's Cathedral, Perth, in 1929 while major expansion works were underway.
context_page_description: St Mary's Cathedral, Perth, officially the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth, and seat of its Archbishop, currently Timothy Costelloe.
  The cathedral is at the centre of Victoria Square, on the northern end of Victoria Avenue, Perth, Western Australia.
  The cathedral as it now stands was constructed in three main phases, with the first phase completed in 1865. Plans were drawn up for the replacement of the cathedral in the 1920s with a larger Perpendicular Gothic edifice. However, construction was interrupted by the onset of the Great Depression, leaving a new transept and sanctuary, with the aisle of the original cathedral as its nave. After being incomplete for 70 years, with portions of the cathedral requiring extensive repair work, funds were eventually raised in the late 1990s and early 2000s for the completion of the expansion. A new curved design for the expansion was created, and featured a second spire and underground parish centre. The cathedral closed for construction in 2006, and reopened in December 2009.
context_section_description: In 1924, Bishop Clune started an appeal to fund the construction of a larger cathedral. Architect Michael Cavanagh designed the new cathedral in the Academic Gothic style. Architect John Cyril Hawes described the proposed design as "bastard Gothic" and proposed instead a large Romanesque cathedral. His plans were rejected, with the clergy instead opting for the Gothic design. Hawes went on to design St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Geraldton.
  The foundation stone was laid on 25 April 1926. Deteriorating economic conditions associated with onset of the Great Depression necessitated the scaling back of the project. The original cathedral, less its sanctuary, was retained as the nave of an expanded cathedral. Exposed metal bands were left protruding from the wall of the new transept, in preparation for completion of the cathedral in future generations.
  The expansion work was undertaken by builders A T Brine and Sons, and it was built from stone from the same quarry as the General Post Office building. The sanctuary mosaics were made to designs found in the Book of Kells. The stained glass windows were designed and created in the United Kingdom by John Hardman of Birmingham. The marble altar from the original cathedral was relocated to the sanctuary of the expanded cathedral.
  The expanded, but incomplete, St Mary's Cathedral opened on 4 May 1930.
  Unfortunately the dream of completing St Mary's Cathedral is one that we must leave to future generations to complete.
  — Archbishop Patrick Clune, upon the expansion's opening in 1930
  [The] new sanctuary and transept ... was connected to the body of the old cathedral, but nobody then or since has considered the amalgam to be a complete cathedral architecturally, aesthetically or liturgically.
  — Archbishop Barry Hickey, December 2003
  In 1938 the cathedral's boys' choir was established, making it the oldest Catholic boys' choir in Australia today.
  In 1973, the central altar and lectern were added to the sanctuary and the redesigned sanctuary was consecrated on 12 August 1973.
  In 1995 the Heritage Council of Western Australia noted that the original 1865 portion of the structure was suffering from falling damp and cracking in the walls, and the mosaic floors in the sanctuary were also cracked. Further deterioration of the cathedral by the end of the 20th century meant that decisions had to be made in relation to the repair and completion of the original design.
caption: The expansion of the cathedral underway in 1929
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