St George's Cathedral

The first Perth church was hurriedly built of wood and rushes to be ready for Xmas 1829. Called the 'rush church', it lasted for seven years. It may have been about where St Mary's Cathedral is now.

There have been two churches of St George in the Terrace with the same name.

The first St George's Church was built in 1841 and is seen in Alfred Stone's photo from c. 1868, with the Town Hall under construction - its foundation stone having been laid in 1867. (The style of the church was quite like that of the first St John's church, Fremantle, 1843.) It was opened in 1845, but not consecrated until 1848, as the Bishop (Short) had to come from Adelaide for the purpose, as Perth was in his diocese until Bishop Mathew Hale arrived in Perth in 1858, at which point the church became a cathedral (the seat/throne - cathedra - of a bishop).

The first St George's Church at a time after the Town Hall had been completed, so after 1871. SLWA.

The foundation stone of the present cathedral was laid in 1880. It was designed by Edmund Blacket, who did not live to see it completed. It was opened and consecrated by the second Bishop, Parry, in 1888. The clay for the bricks came from the claypits of what later became Queen's Gardens, Plain and Hay Streets, next to the WACA.

References and Links

O'Brien, Jacqueline & Pamela Statham-Drew 2012, Court and Camera: The Life and Times of A.H. Stone, privately published, distributed by Fremantle Press.

Statham-Drew, Pamela 2003, James Stirling: Admiral and Founding Governor of Western Australia, UWAP.

Freotopia

This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 7 June, 2018 and hosted at freotopia.org/buildings/stgeorges.html (it was last updated on 9 April, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.