40 Franklin Street, Leederville,
Perth, Western Australia, 6007
Telephone (08) 9444 9624 Facsimile (08) 9443 9598
Parish Priest ~ Father Ossie Lewis

In 1903 the Sisters of Mercy from West Perth opened a convent and school in Marian Street Leederville, which they called Aranmore, after a well-known isle off county Galway in Ireland.

By 1904 a weatherboard building was erected and Mass was held each Sunday. On the 1st of March 1919 the Leederville Parish was established with its own parish priest Father Moloney. Father Moloney’s new parish (the boundaries extended from Scarborough to North Beach, Osborne Park, Wanneroo and Tuart Hill) had no assets, no real church, no presbytery or site for either. By March 1923 three blocks of land (one belonging to the deceased estate of Mrs Teresa Leeder) were purchased for the sum of 900 pounds, with Archbishop Clune dedicating the new church and foundation stone in May of that same year.

Following extensions the completed Church of St Mary’s Leederville was blessed and opened by the most Rev. Patrick Joseph Clune C.SS.R, Fourth Bishop and First Archbishop of Perth on the 13th of February, 1938. The bell that rings faithfully every Sunday morning was cast at the O’Byrne Foundry in Dublin in 1928, probably ordered when the original plans for the church were first drawn up.

It is important to look at the past, if only to secure us in the present and give us strength for the future. The history of St. Mary’s Leederville shows us that the passion for Christ can open doors for all. With the belief that each of us has the capacity for evoking divinity, we gather together and our potential finds expression in a most positive communal form. We invite you to join us in the celebration of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.