Bunbury's new shining light

Bunbury's St Patrick's Cathedral was consecrated last night during a spectacular ceremony last night the like of which has not seen in the South West for 90 years.

More than 800 guests attended the historic event including Cardinal Archbishop George Pell and the Pope's ambassador, taking part in a moving three hour ceremony steeped in tradition.

Pictures from the consecration

Following the service, the $17m redevelopment of the Cathedral Precinct was opened by the Governor of Western Australia Dr Ken Michael.

South West residents have been enthralled as the $17 million dollar redevelopment of the Cathedral precinct has taken shape to become a focal point over looking Bunbury.

Designed by Perth architect Marcus Collins and covering 1600sq m, the city’s newest icon is twice the size of its predecessor, but designed to remind parishioners of the original edifice.

Inspired by hill-side Italian monasteries, Mr Collins said he designed St Patrick’s with an atmosphere of ‘‘contemplative stillness’’ in mind.

‘‘The Bishop wanted the Cathedral as an item on the skyline viewed from the city and surrounds to remind people of the traditional cathedral, even though it is a modern, contemporary cathedral,’’ Mr Collins said.

While designed to remind parishioners of the Cathedral’s namesake which was destroyed by a tornado in 2005, the detailing of the new building is contemporary.

Approached through a long dimly lit corridor with low ceilings, parishioners enter the well-lit Cathedral where they are greeted with lofty ceilings and surrounded by more than 260sq m of ‘‘digiglass’’ featuring depictions by internationally recognised Australian artist Robert Juniper.

To create the digiglass windows, artwork was printed onto plastic sheets and laminated between glass.

Depicting traditional Bible stories and including Australian imagery, it took the 82-year-old artist a year to complete what is the biggest project of his career to date.

‘‘I regard it as the highlight of my artistic career because of the scale of the windows—they’re huge,’’ Mr Juniper said.

‘‘The windows are about colouring the light that comes into the building and the Bishop’s guidance was to make windows that perhaps children could relate to and understand, and I think I have achieved that.’’