St Michael's Cathedral is a heritage-listed Anglican cathedral at Church Street, Wollongong, City of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. It is the principal Anglican church in the city of Wollongong and the mother-church of the Bishop of Wollongong (an assistant bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney). It was designed by Edmund Blacket and built from 1858 to 1859. The property is owned by the Anglican Church Property Trust. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Early European history of the area
Aboriginal communities were present in the area, and first encountered Europeans in 1796. From the 1810s, cedar cutters operated in the Illawarra escarpment rainforests as the first European industry in the area.
Dr Charles Throsby used the coastal Illawarra grasslands as cattle fodder in 1815, opening the area to European settlement. He focused his herd behind the fresh water lagoon, then situated at the junction of the current day Harbour and Smith Streets where he built a stockman's hut and cattle yards.
The first settlement in the area now known as Wollongong was by Charles Throsby Smith, nephew of Throsby. He was one of the first to receive a land grant in the district and in 1822 was the first to settle on his 300-acre parcel. Smith's barn, located near Wollongong harbour, became the first school house in 1826 and then church building in 1828. A military presence was established in the area now known as Port Kembla in 1826. They were relocated to the area now known as Wollongong in 1830. They were replaced by a local magistrate in 1833. This activity was focused around the harbour. In 1834 Smith's land was nominated as the site for the township to be known as Wollongong.
In 1834 Surveyor General Major Thomas Mitchell surveyed the town with the centrepiece of land devoted to the Church of England. As there was no Crown land in Wollongong, Throsby Smith sold his land to the Government, and it was transferred to the church. The surveyed town was bounded by streets to be known as Harbour, Keira and Crown Streets. The St Michael's site was the centrepiece of the town layout.
St Michael's Church
St Michael's Church was built in 1859 and designed by Edmund Blacket for a church community that was small but had expectations of substantial growth. Serving a large region originally isolated by topographic constraints, St Michael's has served Wollongong throughout the most significant phases of the region's development. A focus of community activity and endeavour throughout that growth, the church has substantially contributed to the character of the township that was to become New South Wales' third largest city, and one of the main industrial centres of Australia.
Wollongong expanded in the 1880s and the railway which finally linked the area to Sydney, encouraged movement away from Mitchell's plan. The relative isolation of the Illawarra ended in 1888 when the Illawarra railway was finally introduced to link the area to Sydney. The town was transformed from a focus on the wharves to one on the railway and began to expand away from St Michael's central position. The rail allowed the area to ship milk, coal and coke to Sydney city, expanding Wollongong city's potential enormously.
Reverend Elder succeeded Reverend Ewing in 1892. At his arrival, the press began agitating for an on-site rectory. Dean Ewing had lived in "Cormiston" (demolished after 1960) which was possibly designed by Blacket. Despite the hardship of the times – the 1890s had brought years of depression to Australia – and no funds, the church bowed to the pressure and built the rectory in 1893–1894. A Mr Bevan completed the building. There is no mention of its architect.
By the turn of the century a smelting works and number of coke oven batteries were opened and the town's population rose from 1635 in 1881 to 3545 in 1901 (an average growth rate of 3.9%). A second and worse mining disaster occurred in 1902, when the Mount Kembla mine exploded, killing 96 men and boys, possibly Australia's worst land disaster. A state military funeral was held at St Michael's for Major MacCabe, who died rescuing trapped miners. Changes to mining practices were implemented as a result of this disaster and the Bellbird Mine disaster of 1923. More significantly, the unions were strengthened and formed the Miners' Federation in 1908. The strike of 1909 brought a rebuke in the form of the Industrial Disputes Amendment Act and prosecution of the Miners' leader, but over the next 20 years the miners would win improved conditions.