St Mary's by the Sea, Port Douglas, Heritage-listed church in Port Douglas, Australia

St Mary's by the Sea is a small Gothic-style timber church on the foreshore at Wharf Street, Port Douglas. It has a steeply pitched gabled roof clad in corrugated iron, a central porch flanked by lancet windows, and simple timber buttresses bracing the side walls. Inside, three lancet-shaped timber archways separate the sanctuary from the nave.

The original Catholic church on this site was built in 1881 and destroyed by a cyclone in 1911. A new building went up in 1914 and was later moved to its current location closer to the water.

In 1987 the Catholic Church handed the building to the local community on condition it stay in Christian use, and it now serves as a non-denominational church. It hosts religious and civil weddings, carol services and other special events, and is one of the oldest buildings in Port Douglas.

The church is open to visitors, but it is worth checking ahead as the building is often used for private events. Because it is a small timber structure, the interior is best seen in a small group or on your own.

The church was not threatened with demolition in 1988; the Catholic Church gave the building to the local community in 1987 on condition it stay in Christian use, and it was moved to the foreshore parkland in November 1988 as a Bicentennial Project. The Port Hill site was then sold to fund a new church elsewhere.