St Patrick's Cathedral is a dominant Victorian Gothic church built from basalt and located on James Street, Toowoomba.

In 1843, Australia's first Catholic Archbishop, John Bede Polding, accompanied by Benedictine abbott, Dr Henry Gregory, toured the pastoral stations in Moreton Bay and Darling Downs with a portable altar.

Although McGinty regularly toured the Darling Downs to celebrate Mass, parishioners of the area became more vociferous in their call for a resident priest after Queensland separated from New South Wales in 1859.

It was located on a 8,100-square-metre (2-acre) parcel of land at the corner of James and Neil Streets, which had been set aside in September 1858 for the specific purpose of erecting a Catholic church, school and priest's residence.

Father Dunne's grandiose vision for St Patrick's, however, was not immediately realized and extensions only were carried out to the existing church, which were completed on 5 June 1880.

[2] In March 1883, despite the receipt of two plans for the church and £1050, Father O'Connell decided it was expedient to delay the laying of the foundation stone until Whit Sunday on 13 May 1883, on which day the ceremony was duly conducted by Archbishop Dunne.

That same month, a call for designs and specifications to be submitted with a construction cost of no more than £5000 was posted in the Toowoomba Chronicle as well as in Brisbane and Sydney newspapers.

[2] St Patrick's was a large project, which was delayed by a shortage of materials and labour as well as by the desire of Father O'Connell to open the cathedral free of debt.

[2] The cathedral's walls and foundations were built from blue stone while the buttresses, pinnacles and piers were of freestone, which was mostly acquired from Murphy's Creek quarries.

Paling & Co.[2] It was not until the 1930s that the cathedral was fully completed and in the interim plans had been made by Reverend Monsignor Denis Fouhy to employ James Marks in designing a new tower for St Patrick's.

Also included in the building contract was the construction of a maid's quarters, a laundry, an underground tank, a brick belfry as well as some landscaping works for a total cost of £8863, funded by donations, loans from parishioners and the estate of Monsignor Fouhy.

He immediately set about expanding St Patrick's and in 1930 the architect Arthur Bligh was employed to design a tower adjoining the front facade to the east with a belfry and spire as well as the construction of a mortuary chapel under the sanctuary and sacristies for the bishop, priest, sisters and altar boys.

Work on the cathedral's extensions then began in earnest under the direction of local builder, John O'Connell, who had earlier supervised the construction of St Joseph's Church in Dalby.

[2][3] Although the cathedral benefited during this period from the generous donations of parishioners and local societies, which included furnishings, a new pipe organ and a new bell, the grand building works had left a debt of £8500 by December 1937.

[2] During the 1980s, the cathedral's stained glass was replaced and parishioners invited to purchase a commemorative window pane in honour of a deceased relative and to help defray the $100,000 cost.

In 1989, to mark the centenary of the opening of St Patrick's, a new bell tower was constructed by Bill Walsh and the Toowoomba City Council donated 35 trees for the cathedral's grounds as a civic gift.

In 2001, a major conservation plan for St Patrick's was published for the Diocese of Toowoomba and the following year work began on stabilizing the leadlight windows.

A public statement noted that "The initial removal of coating should be complete by the end of October, however this will be followed by extensive repointing work and maintenance to the roof and guttering, completed with roof painting and the reintroduction of 6 dormers..." [citation required: https://www.stpats.org.au/uploads/1/2/2/7/122702580/29_september_2024.pdf] St Patrick's Cathedral is located on the corner of James and Neil Streets in Toowoomba, less than 500 metres (1,600 ft) to the south of the city centre.

When approaching from the west, the long ridge of its main roof and the stone of its gabled front facade become visible from a distance of approximately 500 metres (1,600 ft).

The cathedral is a fine example of the Victorian Gothic architectural style, the distinguishing elements of which include steeply pitched roofs, buttresses, pinnacles, tracery and pointed arches.

Also included in the Queensland Heritage Register's entry is the presbytery, with walls of face brick and a tiled roof, which is sited on the eastern side of the cathedral building.

A space only 4 metres (13 ft) wide at its narrowest separates the presbytery from a recently constructed brick Parish Centre to the south.

[2] Entry to St Patrick's Cathedral can be gained from a number of points around the building, including on the front facade, centrally through either external wall to the aisles, and through the transept gable ends.

Large parts of the cathedral's floors are carpeted, but in a number of locations polished tongue and groove boards remain exposed.

From the cathedral's original fitting-out a great number of pine and cedar polished pews and book rails remain to line two sides of the nave and the transepts.

The leadlight windows, altar rail and pulpit are the strongest Gothic design elements on the interior of the cathedral, aside from the overall shape and proportion of the spaces.

A large open space at the corner of Neil and James Streets is formed by the eastern extent of the cathedral and the north facade of the presbytery.

[2] To the south of the cathedral and presbytery are located a large parking area and storage shed, a preschool, St Patrick's Hall and the Parish Centre.

Its buildings and grounds have a special association with the life and work of the clergy who served at St Patrick's as well as with the Catholic community who contributed greatly to its development.

It also has a special association with its designer, James Marks, whose prolific experience as an architect in Toowoomba saw him dominate local architecture during the late 19th century.