St Monica's Old Cathedral, Cairns
| St Monica's Old Cathedral | |
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St Monica's Old Cathedral, 1996
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| Location | Minnie Street, Cairns, Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 16°55′02″S 145°46′20″E / 16.9171°S 145.7721°ECoordinates: 16°55′02″S 145°46′20″E / 16.9171°S 145.7721°E |
| Design period | 1919 - 1930s (interwar period) |
| Built | 1927 |
| Architect | Lawrence and Lordan |
| Architectural style(s) | Spanish Mission |
| Official name: St Monica's Old Cathedral, St Monica's Cathedral, St Monica's Church and School | |
| Type | state heritage (landscape, built) |
| Designated | 1 July 1997 |
| Reference no. | 601750 |
| Significant period | 1920s-1968 (historical) ongoing (social) |
| Significant components | cathedral, gymnasium, views to, gate - entrance, school/school room |
| Builders | Michael Garvey |
 Location of St Monica's Old Cathedral in Queensland
Location of St Monica's Old Cathedral in Queensland
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St Monica's Old Cathedral is a heritage-listed cathedral at Minnie Street, Cairns, Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Lawrence and Lordan and was built in 1927 by Michael Garvey. It is also known as St Monica's Cathedral and St Monica's Church & School. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 1 July 1997.
St Monica's Old Cathedral was erected in 1927 as St Monica's Church-School, replacing an earlier church and school demolished in the cyclone of 9 February 1927.
Cairns was established in October 1876, as a port to service the Hodgkinson goldfields. In the same year the area from Cardwell to Cape York was separated from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brisbane as the Pro-Vicariate of North Queensland. In 1884 three Irish Augustinian fathers took charge of the Pro-Vicariate, establishing a priory at Cooktown, and in 1885 they founded the parish of St Monica's at Cairns. An acre of land bounded by Abbott, Minnie and Lake Streets was acquired and the first St Monica's Church, a timber building at the corner of Abbott and Minnie Streets, was opened on 10 January 1886. A school fronting Minnie Street opened at the beginning of the 1890 school year - staffed initially by lay teachers, but from October 1892 by Sisters of Mercy from St Mary's Convent in Cooktown, who established a foundation in Cairns. In 1906 the Vicar Apostolic of Cooktown moved his residence to Cairns, which had eclipsed Cooktown as the principal port of far North Queensland, and at this time St Monica's Church acquired the status of pro-cathedral.
The first St Monica's church and school were destroyed in Cyclone Willis of 9 February 1927. Plans for a cathedral had to be abandoned as appeals were launched locally and in southern dioceses for reconstruction funds. Lawrence and Lordan, architects of Cairns, designed a building to function as both church and school. In the interim, mass was held at the Palace Picture Theatre, and the convent school was conducted at the Irish Association's Hibernian Hall.
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