St Joseph's Convent is a heritage-listed

convent A convent is an enclosed community of monks, nuns, friars or religious sisters. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The term is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

at 179 Abbott Street, Cairns City,

Cairns Cairns (; ) is a city in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. In the , Cairns had a population of 153,181 people. The city was founded in 1876 and named after William Cairns, Sir W ...

Cairns Region The Cairns Region is a local government area in Far North Queensland, Queensland, Australia, centred on the regional city of Cairns. It was established in 2008 by the amalgamation of the City of Cairns and the Shires of Douglas and Mulgrave. ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Australia. It was designed by Edward Gregory Waters and built from 1912 to 1914 by Wilson & Baillie. It was added to the

Queensland Heritage Register The Queensland Heritage Register is a heritage register, a statutory list of places in Queensland, Australia that are protected by Queensland legislation, the Queensland Heritage Act 1992. It is maintained by the Queensland Heritage Council. As ...

on 1 July 1997.

History

St Joseph's Convent was constructed in 1912–14 for the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute for women in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. In 2019, the institute had about 6,200 Religious sister, sisters worldwide, organized into a number ...

, who had established a foundation in Cairns in 1892. The 1914 building replaced two earlier cottage convents. The impetus for construction of a new convent came from Bishop James Murray, Vicar Apostolic of

Cooktown Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the '' Endeavour'', for ...

1898–1914. Construction of St Joseph's Convent at Cairns was considered one of his finest achievements. The new convent was designed by architect, civil engineer and surveyor Edward Gregory Waters. St Joseph's Convent was opened officially by

James Duhig Sir James Duhig KCMG (2 September 187110 April 1965) was an Irish-born Australian Roman Catholic religious leader. He was the Archbishop of Brisbane for 48 years from 1917 until his death in 1965. At the time of his death he was the longest- ...

, Archbishop of Brisbane, on 22 March 1914, Bishop Murray having died on 13 February 1914, prior to the opening.

Description

St Joseph's Convent is two-storeyed with a rectangular plan form with a return bay on the southern corner. It is constructed of reinforced concrete and has a wide surrounding

verandah A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...

at ground and first floor levels with a dominating, two-storeyed entrance

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

and gabled roofs. The original fence survives along Lake Street, which consists of a low concrete wall with evenly spaced piers and "Cyclone" chain mesh infill panels running up to a Gothic-styled reinforced concrete arched gate in line with the main entrance door. The building, which is set well back from Lake Street, has a lawned area in front with mature trees each side of a single-width concrete entrance path.

Heritage listing

St Joseph's Convent was listed on the

on 1 July 1997 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history. St Joseph's Convent is significant for its close association with the development of

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

and Catholic education in Cairns and district since the early 1900s. Together with St Monica's Old Cathedral, these buildings form a highly intact ecclesiastical group, and are important in illustrating the evolution of the Catholic Church and Catholic education in Cairns and district. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. It is also an excellent example of the work of local architect Edward Gregory Waters, and illustrates the establishment of a tradition of building in reinforced concrete, favoured in cyclone-prone Cairns in the early 1900s. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. Despite some refurbishment, the convent survives substantially intact. It remains a fine example of a convent building designed to function in a tropical climate, and is of interest for its re-enforced concrete construction, considered more cyclone-proof than masonry. Together with the nearby Bishop's House and adjacent

St Monica's High School Administration Building St Monica's College Sr Cecilia Building is a heritage-listed part of the catholic school in Abbott Street, Cairns City, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Vibert McKirdy Brown and built in 1941 by VW Doyle. This building was ...

, St Joseph's Convent is part of a grouping of pre-1945 20th century buildings which, although of different styles, are all of similar scale, materials and planning. Both individually and as a group, these buildings make a significant aesthetic contribution to the Cairns townscape and Abbott Street streetscape, and contribute markedly to the city's sense of physical identity and history. The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history. It is of significance for its close association with the work of the

Sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

of Mercy in expanding Catholic education in far north Queensland, and for over 80 years the place has had a strong association for the local Catholic community with the work of the Sisters of Mercy in Cairns. It remains illustrative of the work of the Augustinian fathers in the Vicariate Apostolic of Cooktown (later the Diocese of Cairns), especially Bishop Murray who encouraged the erection of Catholic churches, schools, convents and presbyteries throughout far North Queensland in the early years of the 20th century.

References

Attribution

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph's Convent, Cairns Sisters of Mercy Roman Catholic Diocese of Cairns 1914 establishments in Australia Buildings and structures in Cairns Convents in Australia Queensland Heritage Register Articles incorporating text from the Queensland Heritage Register 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Australia Buildings and structures completed in 1914 Cairns City Buildings and structures of the Catholic Church in Australia