In pursuit of a Catholic Cathedral for Canberra: a history of the 'Cathedral Hill' site.

In the early years of Canberra's development as Australia's national capital, the pursuit of cathedral sites by the Christian denominations in the city was a protracted endeavour. Theft allocation by the Commonwealth was, at times, a vexatious subject. This paper chronicles the desire and attempts by the Catholic Church to establish a national centre for worship in Canberra on a site known as 'Cathedral Hill',--a parcel of land, adjacent to Commonwealth Avenue, with commanding views over Lake Burley Griffin and the Parliamentary Triangle to the south. It is well known today as the location of the Catholic Archbishop's House constructed in 1931.

The story commences with the 1929 proposal for a grand and monumental cathedral there, and then discusses the 1978 concept for a smaller church building to be called the National Shrine. Both these buildings were never constructed.

Canberra--the National Capital

After the federation of the Australian colonies in 1901, the search commenced in earnest for a location for the new Federal Capital. Wrangling between politicians from the two most populous and already well-established cities of Sydney and Melbourne ensured that a neutral site should be chosen for the location of the Parliament and its administrative public service. In October 1909, after a prolonged and controversial investigation, the Federal Parliament gave approval to the definition of boundaries for the new federal territory, centred on a site for a new city on the Molonglo River. The Federal Capital Territory formally came into being in January 1911 and the name Canberra was announced by Lady Denman in a lavish ceremony on Capital Hill in March 1913.

Planning for the city commenced in 1911 with the announcement of an international competition for its design. This was won by American, Walter Burley Griffin, ably assisted by his wife Marion Mahoney, whose magnificent illustrations were included in his competition submission. Sadly, however, due to interference and harassment by the Departmental Board (1), which was overseeing the implementation of his plan, Griffin was forced to leave Australia in 1920. This, coupled with the cessation of most development during the war years, prevented any significant physical progress to be made on the development of Canberra until the early 1920s, when revived enthusiasm for the establishment of the capital allowed the transfer of Parliament to occur on 9 May 1927.

Throughout the 1920s, in this climate of rejuvenated excitement, much interest in Canberra and its development was generated within the Australian population, not the least of which came from the churches. Walter Burley Griffin's 1911 plan for Canberra included sites for the two major denominations, Catholic and Anglican. These, however, were proposed in separate parts of the city consistent with the division of suburbs for workers on the northern side of the Molonglo River and government officers on its southern side. But with the establishment of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee (FCAC) in 1921, which became the Federal Capital Commission (FCC) in 1924, the Government recommended and approved alternative cathedral sites, thus totally disregarding Griffin's intention.

The pursuit of a Catholic site

Canberra's first Catholic Parish Priest was Father Patrick Maurice Haydon (1890-1949). He was ordained and appointed as assistant priest in Queanbeyan in 1912; elevated to Parish Priest in 1918 upon the transfer to Campbelltown of the previous incumbent, Fr Matthew Hogan; and worked tirelessly there until his Canberra appointment in 1928. McGilvray writes:

   For over twenty-one years he was to guide
   the destiny of the Catholic community, and
   he became as much a part of Australia's Capital
   as any man. Historians of the future will
   link his name with those of other notable figures
   who played conspicuous parts in the
   epic story of Canberra's beginnings. (2)

Fr Haydon had a vigorous sense of building development. (3) He was instrumental in a large building programme at St Gregory's at Queanbeyan, including the completion of the school hall in 1922. In Canberra, he oversaw the construction of the Good Samaritan Sisters Convent and the adjacent St Christopher's Church School, both now the offices of the Catholic Education Office of the Canberra Goulburn Archdiocese at Manuka. Dr Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne, and Archbishop Kelly of Sydney laid the foundation stones of these two buildings respectively, during the First Catholic Pilgrimage to the Federal Capital in January 1927 organised by Fr Haydon.

Fr Haydon, aware of the general and ecclesiological interest in available land in the Canberra area, was keen from the outset of his tenure to pursue the construction of a large church in Canberra. On 14 April 1921, he wrote to Austin Chapman, the member for Eden-Monaro, as follows:

   Dear Mr Chapman,

   Would you kindly inform me

   (a) whether the Cathedral sites at Canberra have been allocated
   to the various denominations yet?

   (b) whether in the event of our building a Catholic Chapel at
   Duntroon we could make arrangements with the H. A. Department
   [Home Affairs Department] for the supply of bricks from Canberra
   for that purpose?

   Kindest regards to self and all at "Raven"

   Yours sincerely

   P. M. Haydon (4)

Chapman passed Fr Haydon's letter on to Alexander Poynton, Minister for Home and Territories, who, on 14 April 1921, in a short letter, replied that 'no church sites have yet been allocated at Canberra, neither have the conditions been determined under which the various denominations may obtain church sites.' (5)

The reference by Fr Haydon to the supply of bricks to the Royal Military College Duntroon is remarkable in that it indicates that consideration was already being given to the erection of places of worship there at this time, including the construction of a national church available for use by the various religious denominations. Poynton's awareness of the Duntroon proposal is revealed in his letter of 15 August 1921 to Littleton Ernest Groom, Minister for Works and Railways noting that 'it has been proposed that a national church, available to all denominations, should be erected by the Commonwealth over the grave [of General Bridges], but no decision has been arrived at in regard to this matter'. (6) He also reiterated in this letter his earlier advice to Chapman that terms and conditions for the granting of sites for churches in Canberra had still not been established. Commonwealth Government deliberations in regard to both, an inter-denominational chapel at RMC Duntroon and provision of cathedral sites for the various denominations, were stalled.

To add to his frustration, Fr Haydon gained little support from his bishop, Dr John Gallagher, in his dream of securing church sites in Canberra. On Gallagher's death in 1923, however, he sought the assistance of Monsignor Martin Vaughan, the vicar-general of the diocese, who was in charge pending the appointment of a new bishop. Vaughan and Father William Cahill, the Cathedral Administrator at Goulburn, visited Canberra soon after and the three men inspected sites suitable for future church buildings.

On 27 January 1924, Vaughan wrote to the Minister of Home and Territories seeking perpetual tenure in the 'Cathedral Hill' site, a ten acre parcel of land 'on the north side of the Molonglo River in the vicinity of Civic Place and near the proposed University according to the City Plan'. (7) A reply to this letter eventually arrived in November 1925, with still no clear indication of Government policy on the granting of land for church purposes.

In June 1924, Dr John Barry, the Administrator of St Patrick's Cathedral Parish in Melbourne was consecrated the fourth bishop of Goulburn and quickly took up the cause championed hitherto by Father Haydon. Barry wrote to the Federal Capital Commission (FCC) in December 1925, making formal application for a lease for the 'Cathedral Hill' site with a view to the construction thereon of a Cathedral costing 'upwards of 40,000 [pounds sterling]'. (8) By this time, the pace of building development in Canberra, for relocation of the seat of government from Melbourne, was on the increase. Designs for the provisional Parliament House and the adjoining government offices Secretariat No 1 and No 2 (East Block and West Block) had been completed and their construction had commenced.

The FCC was prepared to grant a lease on the 'Cathedral Hill' site at this time subject to certain conditions, which included a requirement that the financing for the proposed cathedral be seen to involve the rest of Australia. But Bishop Barry was adamant that financing the building outside his diocesan jurisdiction would not be possible and the matter was held in abeyance for a further five years.

The inaugural National Catholic Pilgrimage to the Federal Capital in January 1927 was organised to secure wider support for the proposal. It was attended by clergy from around Australia and included the celebration of a Pontifical High Mass on the site for the proposed cathedral. Photographs of these events are included as part of the Mildenhall Collection of early Canberra at the National Archives of Australia. The Advocate of 3 February 1927 noted the significance of the day in Australian religious history:

   The pilgrimage marked another important milestone in the development
   of the Catholicity in the Commonwealth and to the pilgrims the
   inspiring experiences will ever be a cherished remembrance. The
   demonstration was most impressive and Catholic Canberra opened its
   page of history under most auspicious circumstances. (9)

In 1929, Barry, aware of a more compliant Government now that file political function of the city had truly commenced, again wrote to the FCC requesting a perpetual lease on the 'Cathedral Hill' site. By this time the Government was willing to allocate cathedral sites to both the Catholic and Anglican Churches on the low-rise hills at opposite sides, and at opposite ends, of the central basin of the future Lake Burley Griffin. The Anglican Church, owing to is greater following, was given first choice to nominate a preferred site. It selected the site adjacent to Kings Avenue known as Rottenberry Hill, now the location of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture and the St Mark's National Theological Centre. The Catholic Church secured 'Cathedral Hill' on the northern side of the river, a no less prominent site, and in any event its preferred location. A perpetual lease was given effect from 1 July that year. Other Christian denominations--Methodists, Congregationalists and Baptists--were, by 1933, also allocated generous sites in areas close to the then real centre of the city, around the shopping areas of Manuka and Griffith. (10)

Cathedral of Our Lady Help of Christians

Drawings for the Cathedral had been undertaken in mid 1929 by the Sydney firm of architects Wardell, Moore and Dowling. These drawings, still in the possession of the Canberra and Goulburn Archdiocese, are of historical value in their own right. Each is entitled 'Cathedral of Our Lady Help of Christians Canberra', shows the architects' firm name and is dated 1929. The Cathedral was proposed to be located on the knoll of the hill with its main entrance addressing Commonwealth Avenue to the west. The building was designed to accommodate a congregation of four thousand

The drawings indicate a classic cathedral plan form in the European tradition with a nave and crossing of 75m x 16m, a narthex entrance and attached baptistery, a raised sanctuary of 26 metres length, an aisle on both sides of the nave of 6 metres width, transferring into a semi-circular ambulatory around the eastern end of the sanctuary. The ambulatory provides access to nine minor chapels dedicated to different nominated saints. The sanctuary is raised six steps above the level of the nave and the high altar another four steps above the general level of the sanctuary. The south transept is the base for a tall and prominent tower, incorporating a space noted as being dedicated as a 'Founders Memorial' within its ground floor area. Above this is located the choir with a space higher up for a complete carillon of bells. An elongated chapter house is attached to the base of the tower. Internally the design is restrained and free of ornamentation, save for prominent and lofty nested arched recesses on the main walls of the nave.

Externally, the massive structure was designed in the Romanesque style, the rendering of the drawings suggesting that the construction is of structural brickwork. The main western facade includes three round-arched entrance doors in a decorative stone portal housing a statue of Our Lady Help of Christians. A rose window is recessed within the depth of the facade with fluted brick piping also supporting four tall tracery windows. On the long southern and northern elevations, the aisles are expressed with large brick pilasters acting as buttresses. Circular clerestory windows penetrate the nave above the aisle roof, interspersed with additional buttresses to support the thrust from the roof structure on the nave brickwork.

Attached to the northern facade of the cathedral is a two (and three in part) storey L-shaped presbytery, to house the priests' accommodation, service rooms and cathedral lady chapel. A dotted outline on the floor plan indicates a possible future extension to the presbytery that would enclose a courtyard, all accessed by cloistered verandahs.

This imposing structure, were it to be completed, would have exceeded the dimensions of both St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney and St Patrick's Cathedral in Melbourne. The Canberra cathedral was designed to have a total length of almost 130 metres, which is approximately 20 metres longer than St Mary's. The Canberra tower, which rises 73 metres above the surrounding ground, is 30 metres taller than the central tower of St Mary's.

The Sydney Morning Herald of 31 August 1929, impressed with the scale and form of the building described the building as follows:

   If only for its size the projected Roman Catholic Cathedral at
   Canberra, details of which are now available, will be outstanding
   among the noblest churches of Christendom.... expressing the
   strength of character and independence of the Australian without
   ignoring the architectural tractions of the old world. (11)

Father Haydon organised a Mass of Inauguration of the cathedral on 6 April 1930 (Passion Sunday), at which a foundation stone was laid. This remains today in the possession of the Archbishop. A large crowd gathered on the site, coming from near and far to support the small number of local Catholic parishioners that was estimated (by the end of 1928) to be twelve hundred, only six hundred of whom were over the age of sixteen. (12) McGilvray paints a colourful description of the ceremony in his The Hallowed High Adventure.

   The ceremony itself took place in the morning, and vast crowds
   began to gather early, as Masses were being celebrated, one after
   the other, from an early hour. Cars were plentiful in 1930, and by
   the time the principal ceremony commenced, a vast ring of motor
   vehicles, almost all canvas-hooded, encircled the lower slopes of
   the hill. There were people in their thousands, and as one reporter
   of the day expressed it, "white smoke volumning [sic] in the
   distance indicated the arrival of the train from Goulburn, whose
   passengers were speedily transported across the city". (13)

Work on the new Cathedral was expected to commence within two years, but, with the slow development of Canberra, (its population still less than 9,000 by 1938), (14) the world-wide economic depression from 1929 and the difficulty of raising funds from outside the diocese, it was quickly realised that the construction of the building was a forlorn hope. These circumstances confirmed that the building would never be a large diocesan cathedral, and opinion started to turn towards the concept of a smaller shrine--a national centre for pilgrimage and worship. A presbyter); that was later to become the archbishop's house, was built on the site by 1931 to fulfil the lease condition of a physical commencement within two years. The dream of a Cathedral for Canberra on this site had to be consolidated to one of a much smaller and realistic future endeavour.

Of comparative interest is the contemporary story of the Anglican Church in Canberra that also contemplated, but failed to commence construction of, a cathedral on its lease grant. Bishop Lewis Radford championed a great cathedral there 'which would be to Australia's parliament what Westminster Abbey was to Whitehall'. (15) A design competition was held which produced a winning solution that proposed also a massive Romanesque structure, but the Great Depression and a lack of enthusiasm from General Synod halted any further serious deliberations on its construction. In 1934 Ernest Burgmann, the newly appointed bishop of Goulburn, dismissed the need for a new diocese of Canberra, and with it, the idea of an Anglican cathedral there. (16)

St Christopher's Manuka

By 1938, the aspirations of the Catholic Church had become less ambitious and, in May that year, Archbishop Dr Norman T Gilroy, the future Archbishop of Sydney, laid the foundation stone for St Christopher's Church at Manuka. The first stage of the building opened in 1939, with matching additions undertaken to complete the building in 1972-73.

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 mad the continuing hostilities until 1945, there was little or no stimulus for Canberra's further development and it was not until the late 1950s, under the impetus of Prime Minister Robert Menzies, that expansion of Canberra proceeded apace with the establishment of the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC). The centrepiece of Griffin's design for the capital, Lake Burley Griffin, was filled in the early 1960s and a number of new suburbs were established as the population increased more rapidly. St Christopher's had become the central Catholic church building of the Canberra region. An adjacent presbytery was completed in 1960 and a church hall, the Haydon Centre, in 1962. Nonetheless, the 'Cathedral Hill" presbytery, on the opposite side of the lake was still occupied by parish clergy.

In April 1965 the hierarchy of the Australian Episcopal Conference, under the chairmanship of Cardinal Gilroy, resolved to cooperate with the Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn to facilitate the design of a cathedral in Canberra. By July 1965 a 'Finance and Design Committee' was established under the chairmanship of Bishop John Cullinane with the objective of making an Australia-wide appeal for funding for its construction. The committee also recommended the preparation of a full design brief and the selection of an architect through a two-stage design competition. The estimated cost of the building was then believed to be of the order of two to three million pounds. The Church's initiative did not proceed at this time.

In December 1969, Father Ignatius Ernest Bossence died in Darlinghurst and left an estate, the substantial part of which, approximately $650,000, he bequeathed to the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn for the construction of the cathedral announced by the Church in 1965. The Archbishop of the time, Thomas Vincent Cahill, was the executor and trustee named in Fr Bossence's will. (17)

The archdiocese had a different agenda of priorities on its building programme at this time and the design of a national shrine was not included ill their number. The completion of St Christopher's Cathedral at Manuka, the erection of a new Cathedral presbyter' there, and the provision of necessary. Church offices were given priority over the national shrine.

National Shrine Canberra

In September 1977, however, Archbishop Cahill sought expressions of interest from architects for the design of a smaller church building to be constructed as the National Shrine on the Cathedral site. The fiftieth anniversary of the first Catholic parish in Canberra would occur in 1978 and it was seen as appropriate that a commencement should finally be made on developing the 'Cathedral Hill' site. Mr Clement Glancey was appointed as the architect for the building. He had been involved with the completion of St Christopher's Cathedral (the design of the first stage in 1939 having been undertaken by his father, Clement Glancey Snr) and the design of the adjacent presbytery.

Through 1977 and 1978 a number of options were developed for the design of the National Shrine. The National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) was involved as planning and design authority and imposed strict control on the form of the building. The first proposal, designed to a budget of $750,000, was an octagonal shaped church, about twenty-two metres square, erected on a larger octagonal podium. The building was to be of reinforced concrete with exposed aggregate set in white cement and the roof was to be of copper. The building was to have a central lantern shaped tower with a simple cross at its apex. Alternate schemes included a level of clerestory windows above a lower roof. These early highly geometric proposals, inspired by Southeast Asian architecture, exhibited a simple, yet lofty form, with layered and concave roof segments. The final scheme, which received design approval from the NCDC in April 1978, was a more sculptural solution than any of the earlier proposals. Close collaboration between the architect and the Commission had enabled the design to incorporate the aesthetic direction sought for this prominent building proposed for the Parliamentary Triangle. The design retained a number of elements from the earlier proposals including the concave roof form, the expressed concrete structure and the stained glass windows, but converted the plan form from an octagon to a 210 degree circle segment. The design also skilfully incorporated much of the design philosophy inherent in the Constitution on the Liturgy promulgated by Vatican II in 1963, whereby the altar became the central focus of the worship space. Externally the building was designed to showcase its landmark site and would have provided a significant contribution to the architecture of the Capital in an era when many of the large public buildings in the Parliamentary Triangle were being designed by prominent architectural practices from around the country.

Unfortunately, as far as the archdiocese was concerned, the estimated cost of the building had increased beyond the limit of its budget, and when certain changes were made to the structure and fabric of the building to reduce costs, the NCDC failed to grant approval of the amended design. Archbishop Cahill, who had been intimately involved with the development of the design, died in April 1978, and his successor as Archbishop, Archbishop Edward Clancy, continued to expedite progress on the project. By the end of 1980, however, with no resolution of the impasse with the NCDC, the Archbishop decided to request cessation of work on the project. In a letter to the architect dated 20 October 1981, he wrote:

   I am not sure where we stand with the National Shrine. What with
   the NCDC going cold on the design that it had earlier approved,
   and the soaring costs, now does not seem the appropriate time. I
   recognise that building will not become less expensive, and any
   shrine in the future will require a national appeal. For the
   present I have decided to 'wait and see'. (18)

The 'Cathedral Hill' site remains today with the perpetual lease granted in 1929 still in place. The presbytery, built in 1931, has been extended a number of times and remains the residence of the Archbishop. Attempts, however, to construct a church building on the site, be it a magnificent Romanesque cathedral or a modern and contemporary national shrine, have been given serious patronage throughout Canberra's history, yet have foundered for want of wider support. The dream of a monumental church on 'Cathedral Hill', first promoted by Father Haydon, survives to be pursued at another time; perhaps by another generation.

(1) Roger Pegrum, The Bush Capital--How Australia chose Canberra as its federal city, Hale and Ironmonger, Sydney, 1983, p167.

(2) Alexander J. McGilvray, The Hallowed High Adventure. Devonshire Press, Surry Hills, NSW, 1973 p57.

(3) Jim Gibbney, Canberra 1913-1953, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1988, p119.

(4) National Archives of Australia (NAA): Federal Capital Commission; A192, Applications for Church Sites, FCL 1923/514 Part D.

(5) ibid.

(6) ibid.

(7) McGilvray p92 and Maher, Brian, Planting the Celtic Cross--foundations of the Catholic Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Brian Maher, Canberra, 1997, p343.

(8) McGilvray p94.

(9) The Advocate, 3 February 1927, pp18, 19 & 21, The Catholic Church and the Federal Capital: Profound demonstration of Faith on Cathedral Hill: Foundation-Stones of Church-School and Convent Laid.

(10) Paul Reid, Canberra following Griffin--A design history of Australia's national capital, National Archives of Australia, Canberra, 2002, pp159, 193.

(11) 'Great Cathedral Designed for Canberra--Accommodation for 4000 People', Sydney Morning Herald. 31 Aug 1929, p22.

(12) McGilvray p121.

(13) McGilvray pp141-142.

(14) Pegrum p183.

(15) P. Hempenstall, The Meddlesome Priest: a Life of Ernest Burgmann. Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW 1993, p263.

(16) ibid. A comprehensive retelling of the parallel story of Rottenberry Hill is found in: Tom Frame, A Church for a Nation--A History of the Anglican Diocese of Canberra and Goulburn, Hale and Iremomger, Sydney, 2000 (refer index 'National Cathedral').

(17) 'Windfall for cathedral' report in The Canberra Times, 20 May 1970.

(18) Letter Clem Glancey, Architect's office file, 1977-1981.

David Flannery graduated as an architect from the University of Sydney in 1978 and secured a MA (Conservation Studies) from the University of York in 1984 and a Graduate Diploma of Theology from Charles Sturt University in 2002. He is a Practice Director with architects Bligh Voller Nield and is a member of the ACT Heritage Council. He has lived in Canberra since 1987.