ST JOSEPH’S CATHEDRAL
ROCKHAMPTON, QUEENSLAND CATHOLIC
PAUL SCOTT
SATELLITE VIEW
The Cathedral lies just out of the centre of Rockhampton and to the west, separated by the A1 Highway. It is a building of gracious appearance and surrounded by open space. Entry is off William Street.
The axis of the Cathedral is almost exactly north-south geographically, so we shall find it helpful to revert to liturgical directions, as indicated by the compass rose. This will place the sanctuary at the East (capital letter) and the entry doors to the West (off William Street). The Cathedral is rectangular with covered nave aisles, and a rounded apse at the East end. There are two towers at the West end. There is a link to a chapter house near the Northeast corner, but we shall find that this has no public access: I guess it is used as a sacristy.
We shall begin our exploration at the William Street entrance and circumnavigate the Cathedral in an anticlockwise direction before entering by the West door.
This plan comes from an excellent Guide to the Cathedral available for visitors. We shall enter by the West door (bottom), explore the nave, then walk up to the Lady Chapel (top left) and across to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel (top right), then finishing at the sanctuary. The Cathedral is bright and airy, with a great number of colourful stained glass windows. I had some technical problems with the photography due to the very bright Queensland sun: not a problem experienced with English cathedrals!
You can access intermediate points in the tour by a tap / click on the following links:
A brief history follows. To continue an investigation of the Cathedral building and surrounds, start with START!
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HISTORY
[Wikipedia]
St Joseph’s Cathedral is a heritage-listed Roman Catholic cathedral at William Street, Rockhampton.
The Cathedral was constructed in 1893-1899 as the first Catholic cathedral of Rockhampton following the creation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockhampton in 1882. The building was designed by prominent Brisbane architects, FDG Stanley and Son.
The first official Roman Catholic service in Rockhampton was held in May 1862, when Bishop James Quinn of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brisbane sent two young priests on a pastoral visit. Father James Scully and Father Patrick Duhig arrived aboard the Clarence and celebrated Mass in the local Court House with about fifty Roman Catholic people. Whilst in Rockhampton the two priests instigated a fund-raising exercise to support the construction of a church. This building was opened by Father J Moynahan in 1863, dedicated to St Joseph. Its location was on the corner of Derby and Alma Streets. Father Charles Murlay, later Dean Murlay, was appointed to the Rockhampton parish and looked after an area extending from Gladstone to Townsville and west to Blackall. In 1876 Bishop Quinn suggested that a site be found for the construction of a suitable cathedral as the parish was to become a Diocese. Land in William Street was secured by February 1877 and by 1883 the parish had raised £4000 for the construction of a cathedral. In May 1882 Bishop John Cani was consecrated as the first Bishop of Rockhampton and he planned in earnest for the construction of a cathedral.
Plans were prepared by Brisbane architects FDG Stanley and Son. Tenders were called and construction of the Cathedral began in June 1894. A foundation stone was laid by Bishop Cani on Sunday 17 March 1895. Sandstone was quarried for the building from Stanwell Quarry, about 24 kilometres (15 mi) west of Rockhampton and owned by Bishop Cani.
Cani died on 3 March 1898 before the completion of St Joseph’s Cathedral. As it was the custom of the Roman Catholic Church to bury a bishop within his cathedral, arrangements were made to inter Cani temporarily in the Rockhampton Cemetery with the intention to inter him permanently within the Cathedral once completed. His successor, Bishop Joseph Higgins, arrived in July 1899 to a building only partially completed. Within two months of his arrival the Cathedral was completed with a temporary east wall. Apparently local architects, Eaton and Bates were involved with the design of this final stage of construction. On 15 October 1899 an official opening ceremony was held when Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran of the Sydney Archdiocese celebrated Pontifical High Mass.
On 22 July 1902 the remains of Bishop Cani were exhumed and re-interred in St Joseph’s Cathedral in a ‘brief but impressive’ ceremony. His remains were placed in a vault under a memorial window dedicated to him by the Sisters of Mercy.
In 1918 the Cathedral’s flying buttresses were removed and the walls strengthened. In 1980 the church received advice that the temporary wall of 1899 was unsafe and a programme was instigated for finally finishing the building. On 22 May 1982 Cardinal Sir James Darcy Freeman, Archbishop of Sydney, dedicated the completed Cathedral. In 1987 the stained glass panels, first erected in the church in the first decade of the twentieth century, were returned to John Hardman Studios in England where they were restored before being returned to the St Joseph’s Cathedral.
1905 Photograph showing flying buttresses [Queensland Library Photo]
