St Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Ipswich, Roman Catholic church in Woodend, Ipswich, Australia
St Mary's Roman Catholic Church stands on Mary Street in Woodend, Ipswich, Queensland. The sandstone building, in Gothic Revival style, has a rectangular plan with a nave, aisles and twin spires at the front. Its design is based on St Joseph's Cathedral in Rockhampton, and a rear annexe is built from stone of the previous 1859 church.
The first church on this site was begun in 1858, with its design drawn up by William Holloway Chambers. The current building replaced it and was completed around 1904.
Father Andrew Horan, parish priest from 1872 to 1924, supervised the building of the present church and is buried and commemorated inside it. The church was dedicated on Rosery Sunday, 2 October 1904, by Cardinal Francis Moran, the third Archbishop of Sydney.
The precinct is on Mary Street in Woodend, not far from the corner with Elizabeth Street, and can be reached on foot from central Ipswich. The church, presbytery, parish hall, school buildings and convent stand together on one site, so allow time to walk around the grounds. Visitors are welcome outside service times, with modest dress and quiet behaviour inside.
When the new building went up in the early 1900s, materials from the older church were worked into an annexe rather than discarded. This means parts of the original 1858 structure are still physically present on the site today.
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