The Building

Why not stop by and take a 10-minute, self-guided tour of the building?

Click here to download a Cathedral Tour Guide.

 

The Cathedral building is an excellent example of the Post-War Ecclesiastical style of architecture featuring an unorthodox  form, impressive monumentality, simple and functional finishings and decorative stained glass windows.

The building features four stones from English cathedrals installed within the structure, namely, a stone from Lincoln Cathedral (1092), a piece of marble from the reredos of St Paul’s Cathedral, a stone from the 11th century Canterbury Cathedral and a carved stone from the 13th century Westminster Abbey.

The windows of the Cathedral were created by well-known West Australian stained-glass manufacturers, Gowers and Brown, who have been responsible for the decorative windows in many ecclesiastical buildings in Western Australia.

The Cathedral is associated with Bishop John Frewer, who served as Bishop of the North West – the largest Anglican Diocese in Australia – from 1929 to 1965, and encouraged the construction of twenty-six churches in the region as well as the Cathedral.

The use of concrete for the walls and asbestos clad steel-framed roof for the building were an  attempt to reduce maintenance caused by the harsh coastal conditions of the site.

The use of sandblasting to expose coloured quartz in the concrete walls produced an attractive and unusual finish and was an innovation at that time.

* For consistency, all references to architectural style are taken from Richard Apperly, Robert Irving, and Peter Reynolds – A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture:
Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, Angus & Robertson 1989.