St George's Cathedral, Perth

St George's Cathedral
St George's Cathedral, view form the south west
Location	St Georges Terrace, Perth, Western Australia
Country	Australia
Denomination	Anglican
History
Dedicated	1888
Architecture
Architect(s)	Edmund Blacket
Style	Gothic Revival architecture
Administration
Diocese	Anglican Diocese of Perth
Clergy
Dean	Richard Pengelley

St George's Cathedral is the principal Anglican church in the city of Perth, Western Australia and the mother-church of the Anglican Diocese of Perth. It is located on St Georges Terrace in the centre of the city.

Built between 1879 and 1888 the cathedral is situated at the corner of St George's Terrace and Cathedral Avenue at the heart of Perth's heritage precinct, which includes the nearby Treasury Buildings and the Town Hall. It replaced an earlier building immediately to the north-east of the present one. The cathedral is described in the Western Australian State Heritage Register as being a church in the Victorian Academic style, built of locally-made brick, limestone from Rottnest Island and Western Australian jarrah. The pitched roof was originally covered with slates; these were replaced by tiles in the 1950s because the original roof leaked. A central nave, with a timber vaulted roof supported by hammerbeams, has an aisle on each side and a rose window dominating its western end. The rose coloured brick interior of the cathedral is simple but elegant. The State Heritage Register assessment describes the intersecting beams over the crossing as "impressive in their lightness and grace" and providing a "subdued but elegant decoration to the building". The present cathedral was designed by Sydney architect Edmund Blacket, the pre-eminent architect of his age in New South Wales.

The site is near the "Rush Church", the first church built in Perth by Frederick Irwin, in December 1829, a few months after the city was founded.

From 2005 to 2008 the cathedral was extensively restored with the tile roof replaced by slates as originally built. Earthquake protection was added to two walls to provide bracing and much other work was undertaken.

St George's Cathedral has become noted for its innovative and controversial theological teaching, popular preaching, commitment to inter-faith worship and music.