State Library of Queensland

This photo was used in a postcard for the Queensland Intelligence and Tourist Bureau

The Catholic Church in Innisfail is dedicated to Mary, Mother of Good Counsel (‘Mater Boni Consilii’), a title of Mary, Mother of God, closely associated with the Augustinian Order of priests, who served this parish from the 1880s to 1993. The present church on the corner of Grace and Rankin Streets was the third built-in Innisfail.

In 1885, the land was purchased in Owen Street for a church that was built in 1891. It stood on the hill facing Owen Street, approximately where the storage shed adjacent to the presbytery carport now stands. Beside it on the Grace Street side of the hill was a separate bell tower. This church was dedicated to the Mother of Good Counsel. It suffered significant wear and tear in a short time, the result of termites, etc, and of severe heat and heavy rain. A cyclone in 1906 caused such further damage that it was decided to build another church.

A second church was built, larger and stronger than the first, of silky oak and cedar, on the other side of the bell tower which survived the cyclone intact. On Sunday, March 10, 1918, a cyclone of unimagined ferocity caused enormous damage to the town and district and, although not completely destroying the church, making it irreparable.

Father Michael Martin Clancy, a parish priest from 1898, immediately set about the task of building a new church. The Foundation Stone was laid in August 1926 by Bishop John Heavey. The church was blessed and opened on Sunday, August 5, 1928, by the Apostolic Delegate to Australia, Most Rev Cardinal B Cattaneo who also presided at the Pontifical High Mass which followed. In attendance were all of the Bishops of Queensland (from the dioceses of Townsville, Rockhampton, Brisbane as well as Cairns), several visiting priests, and all of the Augustinian priests from parishes in the Cairns Diocese.

On March 20, 2006, severe cyclone ‘Larry’ caused havoc in and around Mother of Good Counsel Church: windows were shattered, the church structure was weakened and in many places ruined like some of the roofing and the silky oak rafters were torn away.
In 2009, the building was repaired and the church renewed: there has been a transformation – a death and resurrection. The severe damage provided the opportunity to redesign in particular the altar and sanctuary, to accord with liturgical requirements.

Source:
www.gcparish.org.au/Pages/History.html

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