Pope Pius XI raised the shrine to the status of Minor Basilica via the Pontifical decree Inter Potiores Sacras on 4 August 1932.

[3] Sydney was established as a penal settlement on 26 January 1788 in the name of King George III by Captain Arthur Phillip, for prisoners transported from Britain.

To redress this, an Irish Catholic priest, a Father O'Flynn, travelled to the colony of New South Wales but, as he arrived without government sanction, he was sent home.

Therry claimed that, on the day of his arrival, he had a vision of a mighty church of golden stone dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary raising its twin spires above the city of Sydney.

But the land allocated to him was towards the East, adjacent to a number of Governor Lachlan Macquarie's building projects, the hospital of 1811, the Hyde Park Barracks and St James' Anglican church which was also used as a law court.

Built by James Dempsey, it was a simple cruciform stone structure which paid homage to the rising fashion for the Gothic style in its pointed windows and pinnacles.

In his letter, Polding gives Wardell a completely free hand in the design, saying "Any plan, any style, anything that is beautiful and grand, to the extent of our power.

The third temporary provision was a sturdy brick building on the site, not of the cathedral but of St Mary's School, which it was to serve long after the present structure was in use.

The cathedral's builder (for this stage) was John Young, who also built a large sandstone house in the Gothic Revival style, known as "The Abbey", in Annandale, New South Wales.

Following the death in office of Prime Minister Joseph Lyons in April 1939, he lay in state at St Mary's for several days before being taken to his home town of Devonport, Tasmania, for burial.

[10] In 2008, St Mary's Cathedral became the focus of World Youth Day 2008 and was visited by Pope Benedict XVI who, in his homily on 19 July, made the historic full apology for child sex abuse by Catholic priests in Australia, of whom 107 have been committed by the courts.

[11][12] On 16 December 2014, Archbishop Anthony Fisher invoked the special prayers in the Roman Missal from the "Mass in times of civil disturbance" for the victims of the 2014 Sydney hostage crisis.

There are three processional doors in the south with additional entrances conveniently placed in the transept facades so that they lead from Hyde Park and from the presbytery buildings and school adjacent the cathedral.

The lateral view of the building from Hyde Park is marked by the regular progression of Gothic windows with pointed arches and simple tracery.

The upper roofline is finished with a pierced parapet, broken by decorative gables above the clerestorey windows, above which rises a steeply pitched slate roof with many small dormers in the French manner.

St Mary's Cathedral is generally approached on foot from the city through Hyde Park, where the transept front and central tower rise up behind the Archibald Fountain.

It is a design loosely based on the most famous of all Gothic west fronts, that of Notre Dame de Paris with its balance of vertical and horizontal features, its three huge portals and its central rose window.

The French façade was, however, intended to have twin stone spires like those of Lichfield Cathedral, but they were not to be put in place until 132 years after the building was commenced.

The crossing tower, which holds the bells, is quite stocky but its silhouette is made elegant by the provision of tall crocketted pinnacles reaching 46 metres (151 ft) above the floor of the cathedral.

Children who, over the years, have crawled into the arched space beneath the pulpit have discovered another such beautiful carved boss, in miniature and usually unseen.

The interior is lit with a diffuse yellow glow, which, like the upper windows, is in contrast to the effects of the natural light which penetrates through the white areas of the stained glass.

Around the walls of the aisles are located the Stations of the Cross, painted in oils by L. Chovet of Paris and selected for St Mary's by Cardinal Moran in 1885.

This design has as its foundation a cross elaborately decorated like a vast Celtic illuminated manuscript, with rondels showing the Days of Creation and the titles of the Virgin Mary.

The St Mary's Singers is an adult choir of volunteer mixed voices which sings for Vespers and Mass on the third Saturday of every month, as well as at other liturgical occasions, and gives regular concerts.

The ringing and care of the bells is entrusted to the St Mary's Basilica Society of Change Ringers, members of The Australian and New Zealand Association of Bellringers.

[3][27] St Mary's Catholic Cathedral was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004 having satisfied the following criteria.

The cathedral is also where the first pope to visit Australia celebrated Mass and, through its organists and choir masters, has played an important role in the musical history of Sydney.

The cathedral is sited along a ridge running north–south on the eastern edge of the central area of the city and projects a dominating and inspiring presence, its roof and towers rising up above the neighbouring buildings and trees.

The cathedral is a repository of many items of aesthetic significance from the stained glass windows to the altars, statues, vestments, liturgical objects, paintings and mosaics and is important as a venue for musical events and has a considerable role in the practice of bell ringing in Australia.

St Mary's Cathedral and Chapter House has represented the centre of Catholic worship and culture in Sydney (and arguably the State) since its construction in the 1870s.