St Ignatius' Church, Richmond is a Catholic Church located in the Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

 suburb of Richmond

Richmond, Victoria

Richmond is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra...

, Victoria, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It is one of the largest churches in Melbourne outside of the central business district. It is located in a prominent position, the highest point in Richmond, on Church Street.

St Ignatius' Church was designed by English born architect William Wardell

William Wardell

William Wilkinson Wardell was a Civil Engineer and Architect, notable not only for his work in Australia, the country to which he emigrated in 1858, but also for having a successful career as a surveyor, and an ecclesiastical architect in England and Scotland before his departure.In Australia,...

 who had already made a name for himself in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and was also responsible for many of Melbourne's most important early buildings including St Patrick's Cathedral

St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne

St Patrick's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and seat of its archbishop, currently Denis J. Hart. The building is known internationally as a leading example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture.In 1974 Pope Paul VI...

. Like St Patrick's it is in the Gothic Revival style and constructed from local bluestone

Bluestone

Bluestone is a cultural or commercial name for a number of dimension or building stone varieties, including:*a feldspathic sandstone in the U.S. and Canada;*limestone in the Shenandoah Valley in the U.S...

. The foundation stone was laid in 1867. The members of the predominantly Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 working class parish managed to save £700 towards construction, a large sum at the time. Stage one of the church was completed in 1870. This was made up of the nave

Nave

In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...

 and part of the tower and allowed services to commence.

Construction of the remaining sections of the church took many years due to financial constraints. The transept

Transept

For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...

 was completed in 1888 and the remainder, less the spire, in 1892. It was nearly 40 years later that the spire was completed. Designed by architect G.W. Vanheems, it was much taller than that originally proposed by Wardell. When completed in 1928 it was the tallest structure in Australia at 65 metres high. Vanheems later designed the even taller spire of St Patrick's which was added, also belatedly, in 1939. A primary school of the same name operated for several decades behind the Church before its closure and amalgamation with St. James' Primary School in the early 2000's.

The Catholic Parish of Ignatius is administered by the Australian Jesuits

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 on behalf of the Archdiocese of Melbourne

Archdiocese of Melbourne

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne is a Latin rite metropolitan archdiocese, located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.Erected initially in 1847 as the Diocese of Melbourne, a suffragan diocese of Archdiocese of Sydney, the diocese was elevated in 1874 as an archdiocese of the...

.