The opening of Hobart’s St Mary’s Cathedral in 1881 brought an end to a 40 year saga that had begun in 1841 when an attempt was first made to build a new church at “Mount Carmel” on Harrington Street. This article traces the story of early efforts to build St Mary’s, Hobart’s third Catholic church and the city’s first Catholic cathedral. The appointment of Father John Joseph Therry as Vicar-General of Tasmania in 1839 resulted in the construction of St Joseph’s, the oldest Catholic Church in Hobart. Therry was an ambitious church builder but his incautious handling of finances became the cause of considerable controversy. This was to put a brake on Therry’s attempt to build a church on Harrington Street, previously the site of St Virgil’s Chapel, Tasmania’s first Catholic church. [ see No. 944 ]. A month before St Joseph’s was completed, construction began on St Mary’s with the ceremonial laying of the church’s foundation stone taking place on November 14, 1841. The ceremony was “one o
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