The historic first Mass in Dunsborough’s new Catholic church, ‘Our Lady of the Southern Cross’, was celebrated at 6.30 pm on Christmas Eve, 1990. It was a Mass for children. Together with their parents and many holiday-makers, four hundred attended. The decision to build a church to hold four hundred, with an overflow area for many more, in a small village where the permanent Catholic community numbered only about fifty, had been justified.
Bishop Quinn had foreseen the needs, not only of the permanent community, but of the rapidly increasing number of visitors from Perth and elsewhere seeking solace in the tranquil South-West. He appreciated that although their visits are often brief and mostly over the Christmas and Easter periods, their spiritual needs had to be met. Also, he was aware that many people were retiring to live in Dunsborough. The old church, ‘Star of the Sea’ had served the community well for thirty-three years.
It was originally a convent classroom in Busselton. For some years it had been unable to accommodate the holiday season visitors. It will be sadly missed. So many memories. So many Masses and inspired sermons. So much country-style community spirit. So many wonderful priests. Father Ned Kenny was one such priest. Acting on Bishop Quinn’s instructions, he was responsible for finding and purchasing the land on which the new church now stands – a magnificent, tree-covered site of 3.27 hectares. Father Ned died in October 1988, before the decision to proceed with the building of a new church had been made. The Baptismal Font is a memorial to him. One of the first actions of Father Ned’s successor as Parish Priest, Father Leon Russell, was to call a meeting of parishioners to elect a building committee – the date, 13 February 1989.
A committee of seven, under the chairmanship of Mike McMullan, spent the next few months coming to grips with the challenge, examining the needs of the community, looking at other sites offered in exchange for the Kenny site, talking to the Shire Council, solving basic building problems and checking available finance. On 20 June 1989, the committee made their most important decision – the appointment of Iris Rossen and Associates as architects for the project. The brief to her was extremely brief, about half a typed page, well-spaced. The committee offered her plenty of scope for creativity, restricted her with a relatively small budget and charged her with a big requirement – design a practical church, beautiful in its simplicity, to house four hundred. The finished church complex is evidence indeed that the challenge was met and conquered with distinction by Iris Rossen and her supervising associate, Noel Ryan. It is generally agreed that the finished complex has a dignified beauty, both inside and out, enhanced by the grandeur of its surroundings. After seeing early plans, Bishop Quinn made only two practical suggestions, one of which was moving the whole complex closer to Naturaliste Terrace, thus keeping a larger area of land to the west free for future development.
This was done. About this time a number of important volunteers came forward. Theo Newhouse offered his own consulting-engineer firm’s valuable services free of charge, as did plumbing consultant John Cartwright and forester Barney White, who started the ball rolling by identifying and diagnosing the condition of every tree in the immediate area. These gentlemen saved the community thousands of dollars. The builder, Bill Eades of Busselton, was appointed by Iris Rossen after competitive tender – his was by far the lowest quote. Construction started in May 1990. Delays were caused by unexpected clay – this added considerably to costs – and a very wet winter that hampered bricklaying. But Bill’s team did the impossible and finished in time for the Christmas Masses. The unexpected costs in particular placed a very heavy burden on the community. From the start it was realized that the Busselton Parish alone, which includes the small Dunsborough congregation, could not service the anticipated debt. They already had heavy commitments.
It remains the optimistic hope of the Parish Council that those owning holiday homes, holiday visitors and tourists, the three categories for whom 90% of the church was built, would be generous. Sponsorship of essential church items was also encouraged. An important acknowledgement must be made to the anonymous parishioners, small in number, who served on the building committee, organized fund-raising street stalls, entertainments and auctions, cleared the land, planted hundreds of shrubs and planned the opening day’s celebrations. Four parishioners, however, must be named. Firstly, Mark and Judith Fisher, who designed and built the sanctuary furniture and at a very charitable price. They received help from Allan Button, who also made and donated the Processional Cross and statue pedestal and restored the Stations of the Cross.
Their furniture adds much to the beauty of this church. We were lucky indeed to find such artisans within our congregation. Finally, Bill Eades, Busselton parishioner and master builder who, together with his sons Andrew, Jamie, Stephen and Christopher, built the church with skill and love. Bill’s first job as an apprentice carpenter in Busselton had been to build the pews of the old Dunsborough church. These pews still serve today in the new church. David Smith, operating out of the Old Court House in Busselton, is to be congratulated on the making of the stained-glass windows, to a design by parishioner Bill Prior. The large window serves as a backdrop to a beautiful carved wooden statue of Our Lady of the Southern Cross by Englebert Piccolruaz of Sydney. The Dunsborough congregation was honoured by the presence for a week after the first Christmas Masses of Bishop Myles McKeon and, later, for almost a week, of the Archbishop of Perth, the much-loved William Foley, who died suddenly shortly after returning to Perth. Both said Mass daily in the new church. By the early presence of two such eminent Bishops, Our Lady of the Southern Cross displayed her joy and approval in a very subtle way in the building and, finally, in the consecration of a new home for her Son.
