Envisioning the Catholic Cathedral, Sydney’s heart of faith and spirituality

London studio Níall McLaughlin Architects (NMLA) and local design practice Hayball are planning to build the core of the new cathedral precinct in Broken Bay, Sydney, marking Australia’s first new Catholic cathedral development in over 100 years.

*Artist’s impression of the proposed Catholic cathedral project. Photo: Níall McLaughlin Architects*.

Located in the 7.7-hectare suburb of Waitara, 50 kilometres north of Sydney, the new Catholic Cathedral project will require the demolition of the existing Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Cathedral (constructed in the early 1970s), as well as the primary school of the same name, and the Catholic Care building.

Led by the 2026 recipient of the Royal Institute of British Architecture Royal Gold Medal, Níall McLaughlin, NMLA was selected to lead the precinct’s integrated design, with a strong angle on material, craft, light and form.

“We are excited by this special opportunity,” says a NMLA spokesperson, “to help create an enduring spiritual, civic and cultural precinct with a new cathedral at its heart, rooted in the lives, faith and landscape of Broken Bay.”

Virtuous circle of Catholic life

Archbishop Anthony Randazzo, as the key leader of the program, explains that the Catholic Cathedral will be a spiritual centre, community hub and educational integration.

“The brief asked for a cathedral design led by the liturgy and architecture that could only be made for this particular place,” says NMLA.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary since being proclaimed a diocese in April 1986 by the then Pope John Paul II, Broken Bay now serves around 250,000 Catholics across three deaneries from the upper Central Coast, the North Shore and Northern Beaches.

The vision is to create a ‘virtuous circle’ of Catholic life, where the precinct seamlessly integrates spiritual growth with a lifelong journey of learning.

As a living centre that serves Catholics of all ages, the cathedral precinct will establish a path from baptism to early education, primary education and secondary education.

‘On care for our common home’

Embracing the spirit of Laudato si’ (the second encyclical letter of Pope Francis, On Care for our Common Home), the design highlights the use of sustainable materials and keeps the existing Blue Gum High Forest on the Waitara site as a public amenity.

The architectural concept is inspired by the Hawkesbury River watershed that unites the Diocese’s 26 parishes. The project “envisions a congregation ebbing and flowing beneath a forest of timber framing, contained by sandstone structures of local bluffs and caves,” says NMLA.

“We were asked to avoid preconceived ideas deriving from churches designed in past epochs,” NMLA adds. “Now, as we begin the design process in earnest, we are enjoying lively discussions with the Diocese on how the liturgy and the sacraments can find appropriate architectural form for this site and its setting.”

The design envisions a non-typical Neo-Gothic but modernist cathedral space, where a forest of timber framing rises within a sandstone envelope, allowing light to filter through.

This project is currently in the preparatory stage and would require funding from the church’s institutional capital and a dedicated fundraising appeal to progress.

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