St. Francis Xavier Church Building

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In March 1916, Father Hawes was recalled to Geraldton to begin preparations for building the Cathedral of St Francis Xavier. He was responsible for the design and construction and also assisting Bishop Kelly to raise the funds required to pay for it.
Bishop Kelly had already chosen and purchased the site and work began on the foundations of the western part of the Cathedral in June 1916. On 3 September 1916, Bishop Kelly blessed and re-laid the cornerstone of the previous St Francis Xavier’s Church in Geraldton that had been located along the foreshore.
Bishop Kelly had firm ideas about what a cathedral should be. He said … To my mind a cathedral ought to be of such moderate size as to enable every member of the congregation to hear the preacher without effort, and to follow the worship and the functions …show more content…

It was not until the mid-1930s that Bishop O’Collins began to consider the next stage of work for the Cathedral of St Francis Xavier.
In March 1936, the now Dean Hawes took steps to get the construction of the two domes on the towers underway using brick with a cement render. He informed Bishop O’Collins that the work could be undertaken by a local tradesman, Broderick, for just over £61.
The final stage of the building was begun in August 1937. The walls of the south transept and the octagonal drum were finished, and the north transept was completely built. Dean Hawes made changes to the original sacristy to make it larger, on two levels and stylistically different to the rest of the Cathedral.
The Geraldton Guardian and Express newspaper recorded that, in addition, the side aisles of the nave were re-roofed in concrete, new domes of brick had been erected on the towers, the wooden flooring replaced by concrete, two confessionals built from the northern transept, a colonnaded porch constructed and an imposing flight of steps up to the transept porch

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