This story is about an old cathedral in Tasmania. A famous architect designed it in the nineteenth century.


AIRLIE WARD: It's now a Hobart landmark, but it took three St David's churches before the current cathedral was built.

The first was over the grave of Hobart's first lieutenant governor, David Collins, in St David's Park.

In 1813 a second St David's church was built at the current site on the corner of Macquarie and Murray streets.

Construction of the third St David's began in 1868.

DR STUART BLACKER: George F Bodley who designed this cathedral designed only two major buildings outside England.

Many of the Bodley scholars around the world say this is perhaps one of the peaks of his achievements.

AIRLIE WARD: It took about 70 years to completion, raising money around periods of war and depression.

Bodley never visited the site but another architect well known to Tasmania, Henry Hunter, supervised the early construction.

An exponent of the Gothic revival style, Bodley was a stickler for detail.

DR STUART BLACKER: The details mattered a lot to him.

Bodley and his partner actually owned one of the largest stained glass businesses in London and much of our early glass is from that firm.

So he was very much connected with almost every dimension of the building.

AIRLIE WARD: That attention to detail can be seen in the intricate work of the pulpit.

DR STUART BLACKER: This particular pulpit was erected and put into the cathedral in the early 20th century.

There were a couple of horrible flimsy things beforehand.

Bodley did design this particular pulpit, which is notable, I think, for some magnificent carving.

If one can look at almost any section of it there's what you call the linen-fold carving at the bottom which is very rare and some of the very fine filigree type of work in the sounding board.

AIRLIE WARD: The construction of the chancel didn't go exactly as planned?

DR STUART BLACKER: No, in the early '90s, shortly after its construction this wall behind me was composed of glass windows and it obviously wasn't quite heavy enough for the roof and there was some signs of cracking and therefore the roof itself had to be removed and the wall either side had to be removed and reconstruction, which was under the supervision of Bodley, was undertaken over a few years.

AIRLIE WARD: St David's history is intertwined with Hobart's.

The bishop's chair made in 1842 came with the appointment of Tasmania's first bishop, Francis Nixon.

DR STUART BLACKER: In the letters patent of Queen Victoria, she says that from this date the Church of St David in Hobart will be known as a cathedral church and the town of Hobart will be known as a city.

AIRLIE WARD: Apart from being reupholstered, the chair has been untouched.

DR STUART BLACKER: I think subsequent bishops probably wore it out with their expansiveness.