St Mary Leederville WA

St Mary in Leederville, Western Australia is a Christian congregation serving the Leederville community and encouraging others through a life-changing Christian journey.

We seek to serve God by working for justice and peace, respect and learn from all the great faith traditions and desire to be known by the love we have for one another.

 

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The Catholic Church in Australia  

https://stmarysleederville.com.au/  

 

 

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History of Leederville Parish

In 1903 the sisters of Mercy from West Perth (Leederville originally formed part of the West Perth parish) opened a convent and school in Marian Street Leederville, which they called Aranmore, after a well-known isle off county Galway in Ireland.

In 1904 land on the corner of Marian and Shakespeare streets, attached to the convent was purchased and handed to the Sisters of Mercy. A weatherboard building was erected and Mass was held each Sunday.

On the 1 March 1919 the Leederville Parish was established and no longer was part of the West Perth parish of the Catholic Church. Father Moloney was appointed parish priest. He was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1882 and educated by the Christian Brothers at Charville, France and later studies philosophy at Mt. Melleray. Due to ill health he had to return to Ireland to continue his studies at St. Patrick’s College, Carlow, where he was ordained in 1905. After arriving in Western Australia he served as curate at St. Mary’s Cathedral, followed by periods as parish priest in Busselton, York, Victoria Park, Menzies and Wagin.

Father Moloney’s new parish (the boundaries extended from Scarborough to North Beach, Osborne Park, Wanneroo and Tuart Hill) had no assets, no church, no presbytery or site for either. It had a debt of one hundred pounds for school seats and repairs to the school veranda. In March 1919 the cottage at 46 Shaftsbury Street was purchased for a presbytery, and in the same year an arrangement was made with the Sisters of Mercy, that they would give half an acre of their ground as a site for the church in exchange for land at Osborne Park. These lots subsequently became part of the Christian Brothers College, now Aranmore Catholic College.

On the 28 October 1922 Teresa Leeder died and on the 10 March 1923 it was announced that the old homestead where Mrs. Leeder had lived had been purchased for the site of a new church. In total three blocks of land and fences were purchased for the sum of 900 pounds.

Archbishop Clune laid the foundation stone on 6 May 1923.

Work begun immediately. Father Moloney assisted with the building of the church. A severe storm caused damage setting the church back about 500 pounds. The work continued quickly and the church was finally opened on 9 December 1923.

The architect was an E.H. Hamilton. Oral history from members of his family records that Hamilton designed the Capitol theatre (demolished in 1967) and the Subiaco Clock Tower. He died suddenly in 1928 aged 54 after falling into the Swan River from the Barrack street jetty. Little is known of the builder E. Russell but it is understood that local parishioners, Berry brothers, were responsible for the extensive jarrah joinery throughout the church.

E.H. Hamilton’s block plan dated 28 March 1923 shows quite clearly the outline of the original building and the plan for future extension to include a larger sanctuary, transepts and tower. In 1930 the address of St. Mary’s Church was changed from Shaftsbury to Franklin Street when the street was renamed, and gazetted on 20 June 1930. Residents in the area had requested the change as the streets nearby had similar sounding names i.e. Shakespeare and Salisbury streets. Although it is not documented, the name may have been in honour of the Lord Mayor of Perth, James T. Franklin. In 1934 a new presbytery was constructed to the west of the church with the priests taking up residency on 5 November that year.

The extension work to St. Mary’s commenced in 1937. Father Moloney helped organise fund raising and the annual fete was always a huge success.

The extension to the church was completed in 1938. Father Moloney was very involved in the design and supervision of the work that was carried out. The following is a description from The Record newspaper of the opening ceremony, conducted by Archbishop Clune on the 13 February 1938.