The scaffolding has come down around Armidale's iconic Saints Mary and Joseph Catholic Cathedral after significant upgrades have been undertaken to the roof and other areas.
More than 60,000 slate tiles on the Parish Centre and Cathedral roof and around 2,500 handmade metal tiles on the spire, have been replaced during the building works.
About 166 metres of new guttering has been installed and around 36 highly-skilled trades people have been working on the roof restoration since June 2023.
The city of Armidale is graced with two magnificent Cathedrals and other heritage-listed buildings dating from the 1860s that reflect the lofty aspirations of the early settlers. Over 20 buildings and places in the region have State Heritage Significance and are listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.
Armidale Regional Council (ARC) has worked hard to ensure heritage aspects of the City's unique buildings are preserved and it retains the services of a Heritage Advisor who can provide expert advice where required.
Council assessed the Catholic Diocese's heritage reports and assessments via a Minor Heritage Works pathway, which is a simple, free, quick turnaround process that can be used when repair or maintenance works are occurring to Heritage buildings.
"Council assessed and approved the Minor Heritage Works application within a couple of weeks, which for a project of this scale was pretty quick," said Jesse Dick, ARC's Senior Strategic Planner.
"The applicant had engaged good consultants to prepare their reports, and the NSW Government had already assessed the works and approved them, so we were confident that the works would be undertaken correctly. We assisted as much as we could to get the works underway."
Restoration on the Cathedral has been extensive according to the Catholic Diocese, with the entire roof replaced with new slate, sarking and timber battens. The box gutters were replaced with new zinc gutters and new timber frames behind the gutters. There has also been new ridge and hip capping to all areas.
The Cathedral Spire has also undergone extensive work with new earth strapping installed down to ground level, new ply installed to the timber frame, and steel bracing was installed inside the Spire frame.
"The roof has been replaced due to extensive damage caused by the tornado and hail storm in October 2021," a Catholic Diocese spokesperson said. "This is the first time that the roof has been fully replaced since the Cathedral was completed in 1912.
"It was partially repaired in the 1990s due to damage caused by a hailstorm. In the current works, all roof areas have been replaced and the Spire to the Cathedral has been repaired.
"In addition, repointing work was carried out on some areas of the Cathedral and Spire. The Parish is considering some restoration work to the interior of the Cathedral whilst it is closed.
"Works carried out on the Cathedral had to comply with NSW State Heritage guidelines. There was extensive consultation with heritage advisors and preparation of heritage impact statements to ensure that the works were all compliant with NSW State Heritage requirements."
Works are expected to be completed by December 2024 and an official reopening of the Cathedral will be held on December 15 with a special reopening Mass followed by a Carnival in the Cathedral Grounds.
Photographed: Rowan George (Project Manager), David Smith (Diocesan Financial Administrator) and Robert Jones.
