St Paul's Cathedral, Bendigo
Bendigo Update, January 2020
As you can see from the photo, St Paul's bell tower has scaffolding on 3 sides. This will remain in place until the end of March 2020.
Repairs will be made to some of the loose decorative pieces and the louvres may be attended to.
This is only a small step towards the tower restoration. There is no estimated date for an engineer’s certificate, a requirement before the bells can be rung again.
Stephen Young
Bendigo Update, June 2018
I had formal meeting with the new Bishop and the new Dean at Bendigo recently, and was pleased to learn that a relative of the Dean has rung at Bendigo in years past. Both seem responsive to my continued request to get the bells ringing again, but at this stage funds are needed to place scaffolding around the top of the tower so the render can be checked and repaired.
Stephen Young
St Paul’s Cathedral, Bendigo - Ringing Again
Great News!
An engineering report on the tower structure about 6 years ago stated that the additional stresses put on the tower by ringing the bells are less than the maximum allowable for masonry structures. However, these should be monitored. A favourable report was also received from Whitechapel Bell Foundry recently.
With the help of some computer equipment, we are now in a position to measure movement of the tower, and the church has made a decision that 'limited' ringing, on a test basis, can be done. Four times throughout the year the bells will be rung for about 50 minutes to enable data to be collected. The results will be reviewed in 12 months.
The first test of the bells is planned for Saturday 3 October 2015 at 10:00am, with a quarter peal attempt.
Issues of re-establishing a band and recruiting new ringers are still to be worked out. The tower is also in need of lots of work to bring it up to standard, but the bells are in good condition. The Cathedral is currently being painted inside.
This is a great step forward to having the tower opened permanently.
Stephen Young
August 2015
St Paul's Cathedral, Bendigo - March 2015
The image below shows that work is still progressing at St Paul's Cathedral, Bendigo. In fact restoration of the floor of the Cathedral should be complete by now.
Recently the local newspaper, The Bendigo Advertiser, compiled a video story about the Cathedral which is well worth a look [the Webmaster agrees]. It is part of a series called "Hidden Bendigo" which takes you into some other fascinating places around Bendigo.
It's been nearly six years since St Paul's Cathedral hosted its last service. In this journey into Hidden Bendigo, we discover the reasons behind the closure, the steps taken to rectify the problems and exactly what the future holds for this valuable piece of the city's history.
For those interested in hastening the restoration progress please consider making a tax deductible donation through the National Trust (deposit directly into the National Trust Appeal Account: BSB: 033 000, Account No: 937419) or via the St. Paul's website. You may specify that your donation is spent on the tower restoration and the Cathedral will allocate it accordingly. The tower needs its Pinnacles restored and placed back on top of the tower - Louvres replaced near the top of the tower - minor Surface Cracks in the tower rendered - internal and external Repainting - and lots more, amounting to just under $1,000,000. Every donation gets us closer to being able to ring the bells again.
The bells will be chimed this Easter at the Cathedral before the 10am service. It's a pity that we cannot ring them full circle!
Stephen Young
Ringing suspended at Bendigo
On Friday, 23rd January 2009, St Paul’s Cathedral Bendigo was closed indefinitely due to the state of the building. This has been brought about mainly due to the drought and the age of the Cathedral. It means that the tower has been closed as well. This has been a shock to the ringers in Bendigo. Any enquires should be addressed to
notes
This page supplements the ANZAB Tower Directory, and records further information about the tower, its bells and ringers.
Some of this has been provided by local ringers, but most is historical and has been gathered by the ANZAB Webmaster since 2002.
Tower officers are encouraged to submit material for inclusion on this page, or suggest changes to its content.
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