St Patrick's Seminary

The campus buildings are now occupied by the International College of Management, Sydney,[3] a leader in career-focused, quality education offering undergraduate and postgraduate courses that are regulated and recognised in the same manner as all public universities in Australia. The Cardinal Cerretti Chapel,[4] however, is still regularly used for weddings, with receptions often held in the Great Hall or Grand Dining Room of the adjoining building.[5] The building appears as the exterior of Gatsby's mansion in the 2013 movie, The Great Gatsby.[6] Palm trees at the building's exterior were digitally removed in post-production to be faithful to the East Coast, United States, where The Great Gatsby is set.

Conceived by Archbishops of Sydney Roger Vaughan and Patrick Cardinal Moran,[1] the seminary was built from 1885 in Perpendicular Gothic style by Joseph Sheerin and John Hennessy[1] on a spectacular site overlooking the Tasman Sea on a hill above Manly on Sydney's northern beaches, located towards North Head. The seminary opened on 23 January 1889.[5] Though intended as a national seminary, it never entirely achieved that ambition.[7]

An early student was Patrick Joseph Hartigan, author of the "John O'Brien" poems on Australian Catholic rural life. Two of the first novels of former student Thomas Keneally, The Place at Whitton (1964) and Three Cheers for the Paraclete (1968) are set in a fictionalized version of the seminary. Tony Abbott is a former seminarian.

By the time of its centenary in 1989, 1,714 men had been ordained, having completed their training at the College. These include Cardinals Gilroy, Freeman, Cassidy and Clancy and 41 bishops.[5]

The seminary closed in November 1995, and the seminary was renamed, when numbers of seminarians no longer justified the large building and shifts in ecclesiological thinking mandated a move to the geographical centre of the Greater Sydney Area.

The following outline history has been reproduced from the Conservation Management Plan for St Patrick's Estate, Manly prepared by Tanner & Associates Pty Ltd:[2]

To aid in understanding, the history of the site was divided into a number of periods:[2]

• 1810-1858: covers the period of the earliest land grants in Manly including the Quarantine Grounds on North Head.
• 1859-1900: commences with the granting of land for the purpose of constructing a residence for the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. The major buildings, St. Patrick's College, the Archbishop's Residence and the Recreation Building, date from this period.
• 1901-1935: saw the division of the site by the construction of Darley Road and the erection of the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel, the Convent and extensions to St Patrick's College.
• 1936-1985: includes major site development (with buildings now considered of marginal cultural significance).
• 1986-2002: includes the most recent work in the conservation of the site and its buildings.[2]

1810-1858

The first land grants in Manly were made to Richard Cheers (100 acres) and Gilbert Baker (30 acres) on 1 January 1810. The western boundary line of Cheers' grant physically separated North Head from what was to become Manly. In 1832 North Head was dedicated for use as a Quarantine station.[2]

Land for the Episcopal grant was later taken from the Quarantine Grounds.[2]

The immediate background to the establishment of St Patrick's College and the Episcopal residence at Manly can be traced back to the mid-nineteenth century.[2]

In 1850 public land and money had been dedicated for the purpose of constructing a residence for the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney. At first a five-acre portion of Grose Farm was suggested as a site for the Episcopal residence, but the University of Sydney had already been allocated this land in its endowment. Monastic and diocesan troubles, as McGovern has noted, along with Archbishop Polding's retirement from Sydney, caused the matter to lapse until 1856 but in that year, a request for 6 allotments at Coogee was obstructed by Surveyor General G.W. Barney, as was a subsequent claim for 15 acres on Cabarita Point on the Parramatta River.[2]

St Patrick's seminary in 1900

1859-1900

In 1859, Abbott Gregory successfully requested 60 acres adjoining and overlapping the Quarantine reserve. (On survey, the allotment was found to be 90 acres and it was subsequently cut back). "Honest" John Robertson, the Secretary for Lands, reported that since[2]

'...The small cove called Shell Beach is a favourite place for public recreation and that the number of persons resorting there is rapidly increasing, (it) would seem to me a strong reason in favour of granting the land (with the understanding that it would be fenced. It surely is most objectionable that a portion of the land reserved for a quarantine ground should be used extensively as a place of public recreation.'.[8][2]

— John Robertson

Later commentators unfairly claimed that Robertson's decision rested on "the advantage of having this Catholic property as a barrier between the outer public and the Quarantine Station (since) Catholics were so thick-skinned they would not take smallpox!" (Catholic Press, 6 September 1917, in McGovern). This notwithstanding, the grant was approved but the deed was not issued until 1879. As Sydney was without an ecclesiastical seminary an educational function was attached to the grant. Apparently the splendid isolation of the site, yet its general proximity to the city of Sydney was thought appropriate by the Church, given the need for access to a major urban centre which was a focus to the region, and a locale which enabled serious study and retreat from the pressures of normal society.[2]

Ironically, as Henry Parkes pushed through the secular Public Instruction Bill, the grant on which the largest Catholic seminary in the southern hemisphere was to be built was consolidated. In 1885, plans for the Diocesan seminary were drawn up by the Sydney architects Sheerin and Hennessy. Work began during June 1885; the foundation stone was laid and blessed on 19 November 1885, and on 23 January 1889, the opening ceremony was conducted. The magnificent and commanding structure cost 70,000 pounds to build. The builder was W.H. Jennings. The driving force behind its construction was Cardinal Patrick Moran whose strength of personality is indelibly manifest in various architectural and other details, notably the use of his initials and regalia in various carved and cast panels.[2]

The erection of the College coincided with Manly's first, though modest, suburban boom. Despite delays in building and the loss of the life of a labourer, the hill became 'the scene of great activity':[2]

`Three hundred and twenty five men were on the pay-sheet. Labourers' tents and workmen's sheds sprang up with lightning like rapidity, so that the once desolate hill was now a veritable calico-town by day, and resembled a bivouacked army by night.' As far as building materials were concerned, the article continued,[2]

`One cause of trouble was the contractor's inability to secure suitable stone. The opening stages of the work were built with stone hewn from near the tennis-court. The material from that quarter proving inferior, and smallpox barring entrance into the quarantine reserve, recourse had finally to be made to the quarry on the site of the Grotto of our Lady of Lourdes'.("Manly", Vol. 1, No. 1, 1916, p. 36).[2]

The Archbishop's Residence was built slightly earlier at a cost of 10,500 pounds. Problems with its sandstone (which are evident today) led to a choice of a different quarry for the College. As with the College, Sheerin and Hennessy acted as the architects. W. Farley secured the building contract. Work commenced on the residence early in 1885 and was completed by the end of 1886.[2]

Just as work on the College was beginning, however, Manly Council made application to the Minister of Lands for the resumption of 100 feet from the high water mark fronting Cabbage Tree Bay. Shell (later Shelly) Beach and the land to the east and south of that beach as far as the Quarantine Reserve was also requested for public use.[9][2]

Such action required the surrendering of 8 acres and 27 perches from the Episcopal grant. And on 15 January 1886, the area - along with a separate, adjoining allotment of 2 acres 2 rods and 21 perches - was dedicated for public recreation.[10] By way of compensation, however, the Church was granted 23 acres and 3 rods from the Quarantine Reserve behind and adjoining the original Episcopal grant. Later, on 23 August 1904, Cardinal Moran was to arrange for the purchase of an allotment of 3 rods and 11 perches connected to the south eastern end of the exchanged land. This was to finalise the general outline of the property.[2]

Prior to the transfer, the Church grounds had been bounded by a "high galvanised iron and barbed wire fence". By c. 1900, however, a stone wall had been constructed along the new south eastern boundary.[2]

The college in 1931

1901-1937

Over the period 1900-1907 various small residential lots adjacent to College Street, Reddall Street, Fairy Bower Road and Bower Street were purchased by the Church.[2]

The only other modification to the property's physical dimensions resulted from the dedication of a strip of land 66 feet wide through the grounds for the extension of Darley Road. The dedication was made in 1879 and its use as a public road was declared by proclamation in the Government Gazette on 22 October 1887. Construction of the road was not undertaken, however, until World War I. In return for the land lost, the Army - which used St Patrick's tower for military observations during the war - built the stone walls which still flank Darley Road. Their design and construction appears to have been based on the stone walls previously built as a barrier between the College grounds and the Quarantine Station: they are a striking and important visual element in the landscape. The walls may have been built in stages between 1914 and 1932.[2]

In terms of building development on the site up until World War I, a recreation room which housed 2 billiard tables and a gymnasium was constructed c. 1910. It survives as the Cardinal Freeman Pastoral Centre, though part of the original verandah has been removed to facilitate construction of modern garaging.[2]

The extant basketball and handball courts were also built c. 1910. Other improvements in sporting facilities, according to an article by Eris O'Brien in Manly,[11] were also undertaken around this time:[2]

'The football field has undergone many improvements at the hands of ardent sports committees. Much excavation of rock and sand has been done, thereby making the field sufficiently large for Australian Rules. Another improvement worth mentioning is the dressing-shed, or, as it is commonly called, the grandstand. The former shed was blown down in a wind storm . . .'[2]

By this time, general upkeep and other maintenance costs were becoming a cause for concern. Thus, in 1914, it was decided:[2]

`. . . That the outer fringe of college lands should be made available as revenue-producing to meet the upkeep of the palatial buildings which had been erected.' ("Manly", Vol. 6, No. 1, 1939, p. 34).[2]

Given that the condition of the grant forbade any on site development other than the erection of an Episcopal residence and buildings for the purpose of education, a special Bill had to be passed through the Parliament of New South Wales. The St. Patrick's College (Manly) Bill, enacted in 1914, allowed for the sub-division of approximately 21 acres "running down to and overlooking Shelly Beach and Fairy Bower". As noted in an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald (20 March 1915), allotments were offered on a leasehold basis on 27 March 1915, on the grounds. All rentals were annual and based on 5 per cent of the selling value over a period of 99 years. In terms of municipal development, the sub-division was well-timed: Manly was entering its second period of suburban boom.[2]

Leaving aside developments in the sub-division, no further building activity seems to have occurred on the grounds until the 1930s.[2]

Between 1934 and 1936 much in the way of construction took place. On 8 April 1934 the foundation stone of the Cerretti Memorial Chapel was laid and blessed: the Chapel was consecrated on 14 November 1935 and officially opened 3 days later. (The designers were Hennessy, Hennessy and Co., architectural engineers of Sydney).[2]

Construction of the Convent to the design of Ernest A. Scott, Green and Scott, Architects, was also undertaken in 1934, though the building was completed by the end of that year.[2]

The large extension behind the eastern wing of the College also designed by Ernest A. Scott, Green and Scott, Architects was completed in 1935 and involved an additional two levels of student accommodation above an enlarged kitchen facility.[2]

1938-1995

Post World War II developments were substantial. Kelly House was built in 1954 for residential purposes; a swimming pool made of reinforced concrete was begun at the end of 1956 (after the old baths behind the Archbishop's Residence were ruined in a violent storm) and opened on 17 November 1957;[12] Gilroy House was opened in 1961 a brick addition was made to the convent in c. 1961; and St. Paul's High School was built in c. 1967 with further buildings added in the late 1970s.[2]

The last alteration to the physical dimensions of the property was made in 1975, when a 25m to 30m foreshore area of the Estate at Spring Cove was donated by the Church to Manly Council, thereby providing a public walkway connecting Little Manly Point to Spring Cove. A block wall consistent in height with Estate stone walls was constructed on the new site boundary.[2]

In 1986 Manly Council commissioned comprehensive Environmental Investigation and Heritage Studies of the St Patrick's Estate in preparation for the new LEP.[2]

In 1988 Manly Council's LEP zoned the majority of land north of Darley Road Special Uses Seminary, the majority of land south of Darley Road Church Purposes and four parcels of land within the Estate for residential development. In 1993 the Church announced that the Seminary would be vacating the St Patrick's estate site in 1995.[2]

1996 - 2002

At the end of 1995 the Seminary moved from St Patrick's College, Manly, to a site in the vicinity of the Australian Catholic University at Strathfield. Between December 1995 and May 1996, College buildings comprising Moran House, the Pastoral Centre and Kelly House were conserved and adapted with new services throughout to accommodate the residential training college - International College of Tourism and Hotel Management, which has a lease over these buildings. The new College was opened in May 1996.[2]

During this period the derelict concrete swimming pool and handball courts were demolished, and the landscaped setting in the immediate vicinity of the college buildings was repaired and its plantings enhanced.[2]

Some religious artefacts relating to the Seminary including some statuary, two stained glass windows (the "Rite of Tonsure" and 'Ordination of a Subdeacon') and the Stations of the Cross were moved with the Seminary to Strathfield.[2]

The following developments have occurred on the site in recent times:[2]

• Construction of vegetative links as bandicoot supportive habitat in locations consistent with the 1995 CMP - 1997-1998
• Construction of Bear Cottage Hospice for Children adjacent to Fairy Bower Road completed in 2001
• Construction of new attached dwellings and apartments in the eastern quarter amongst existing coastal honeysuckle trees (Banksia) and other trees; new housing in the northern quarter (adjacent to College Street which were due for completion April 2002) and minor upgrades to the garden itself.[2]

In January 2007 consent was granted by Manly Council to redevelop precincts 4,5, 6 and 10 of the estate for residential use, including the Spring Cove portion of the Estate, which was subdivided into 22, later amended to be 21 lots. A number of buildings have been completed or are in differing stages of construction since.[13][2]

The Archbishop's Residence (1884–85)

Termed the "Archiepiscopal Residence" on the original architect's drawings, and colloquially termed 'Cardinal's Palace' during the 20th century, this was the first structure completed on the site to an impressive scale and budget. It is a good example of the domestic Gothic Revival style designed by Sheerin and Hennessy Architects and while its Gothic detailing can be held to be in the tradition established by architect Augustus Welby (A.W.) Pugin (1812-1852) in England, the cast iron verandahs are a 19th-century response to the colonial climate, while other elements such as the central fleche and convenient planning presage Edwardian architectural trends. The cast iron panels of the verandahs contain Moran's initials and their detailing reflects the later 19th century "Aesthetic Movement". Two terracotta statues of saints dominate the bays of the main elevation. The building is two storeys of stone with a slate roof. It was built by William Farley, Builder, for 10,000 pounds.[2]

The cedar joinery, parquetry flooring and stained glass windows are of exceptional quality. There are six principal rooms on the Ground Floor plus kitchens and a servants wing. The first floor contains bedrooms. The ground floor dining room, the first floor "Council" room (originally planned as a Library) with vaulted ceiling, and the cedar staircase display fine materials, detailing and craftsmanship.[2]

The Archbishop's Residence and the St. Patrick's Seminary were once linked by a carriageway.[2]

Over time verandahs have been infilled and the stable block altered, but the original fabric remains generally intact. The sandstone is of a poorer quality than Moran House and some deterioration is evident.[2]

The immediate landscape setting comprises chiefly cast iron gates with stone piers to Darley Road, the driveway, a carriage loop and a vista to the harbour and related plantings to all the above. The plantings are now mature and certain elements such as the pine plantations require replacement. There are remnants of the earlier larger gardens evident on the lower portions of the site.[2]

St Patrick's Seminary

St. Patrick's Seminary (1885–89)

The seminary as viewed from a distance

The seminary was designed by Sheerin and Hennessy and built by W.H. Jennings between 1885 and 1889. The stone building is four storeys high with a six level central bell tower and a slate roof. A two storeyed colonnade flanks the central entrance. The building is splendidly sited, of high quality construction in the perpendicular Gothic style and impressive in scale.[2]

The sandstone used is of superior quality and steel members spliced into hardwood beams allows large spans. The building was designed with modern plumbing and a service lift. The simplicity of the planning and the effective use of good materials - sandstone, slate, selected timbers, marble and leaded glazing show an architectural initiative designed to last well over time. A certain grand austerity pervades the design.[2]

The entrance vestibule and "cloisters" with cedar and kauri pine ceilings, stained glass windows and marble tiled floor lead to a monumental stone staircase. Accents such as the "crossed" architraves can be found in other Gothic buildings in Sydney (such as the original portion of the University of Sydney) and may, in fact, derive from the Oxford Movement.[2]

The Library (former chapel), Refectory, Aula Maxima, Lecture Rooms and private oratory on the ground and first floors are impressive in scale and detailing and designed to form a sequence of grand interiors, on occasion with large interconnecting doors.[2]

The second and third floors provided accommodation for the seminarians in the form of small cells and communal bathroom facilities.[2]

The addition to the kitchen wing in 1935, designed by Ernest A. Scott, Green and Scott, Architects, is of comparable quality and detailing. A further addition to the kitchen wing, of lesser quality, was constructed c.1970.[2]

c. 1970 the second floor cubicles were converted into private rooms and bathrooms were upgraded.[2]

Originally the main interiors were decorated with rich contrasting timbers on ceilings and doors (and door surrounds) and the use of a stencilled dado, and while covered or muted, traces of this taste can be found.[2]

While some parallels can be made between this building and Sacred Heart Convent, Rose Bay and St Joseph's College at Hunters Hill, its special role and planning set it apart. The first floor corridor with its timber trussing and the eastern first floor verandah do evoke architect John Horbury Hunt's use of timber but generally the detailing is economical and practical, while remaining Gothic and ornamental.[2]

The Seminary use of this building ended in 1995. Major conservation works to Moran House were completed in 1996. The building is now, leased and occupied by the International College of Tourism and Hotel Management.

Conservation works completed in 1996 included:[2]

• Repairs to stone facade, slate roofing, cast iron gutters and downpipes
• New Services throughout including fire services (sprinklers, smoke detectors) and lift
• Refurbishment of all rooms including bathrooms
• Introduction of glazed screens for smoke compartmentation.[2]

Cardinal Freeman Pastoral Centre (formerly Recreation Centre)(1910) A single storey "Federation" style.building of rusticated coursed sandstone with a slate roof and bullnosed corrugated iron verandah was built in 1910 to provide a gymnasium and two billiard rooms for the seminarians.[2]

The building was altered c.1970 to accommodate teaching areas and a workshop. The verandah was partially demolished to enable the construction of carports, which did not complement the original centre.[2]

Major conservation works completed in 1996 included:

• repairs to facade and roof
• reconstruction of northern verandah
• repair of coachhouse
• adaptation for students' kitchen, bar and lounge[2]

The Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel

The Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel (1934–35)

This was built 40 years after the Seminary, in 1934-5 complements it in Gothic style, materials and details. It was designed by architects Hennessy, Hennessy & Co. The east end is convenient to the seminary and has an emphasis on function rather than architecture; the architectural highlight is the cluster of chapels at the west end and the 20th century structural devices which enabled the column free interiors without massive buttressing. The "cloister" aisle along the northern edge of the building, with its sequence of altars, is a distinctive and well-lit space.[2]

It is a lofty single storey building with organ and choir loft and cloisters. The nave is column-free, and features an uninterrupted vaulted ceiling with silky oak joinery, jarrah parquetry flooring and decorative plaster. The special features of the sanctuary are marble altar, sandstone altar canopy and terrazzo flooring. The chevet end displays fine marble altars and magnificent stained glass windows.[2]

The major windows appear to be of English manufacture, the lesser ones of local manufacture. (John Hardman & Co, Birmingham)[2]

Conservation works completed in 1996 include repairs to slate roof, gutters and downpipes and stonework.[2]

The St Therese's Convent (1934)

This was designed by Ernest A. Scott, Green and Scott, Architects, to provide accommodation for the Order of Our Lady Help of Christians. Built in 1934, it is two storeys high with rendered walls and stone trims with its main elevation accented by a copper turret denoting the Chapel and a major archway framing the outlook from a verandah. The verandah was, at an early stage, glassed in. The Chapel was originally a two storeyed space with a vaulted ceiling behind the eastern bay and several small stained glass windows. The building is a well resolved domestic Edwardian dwelling.[2]

The Convent is sited on an axis with the kitchen wing of Moran House and is linked to the Seminary by a concrete pedestrian bridge. The residential addition designed by Sydney G. Hirst and Kennedy, Architects and constructed in 1962 does not complement the original convent.[2]

Today the convent is home to the Head Office of the International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS).

St. Paul's College (1964–74)

The college complex was built over ten years. The buildings are concrete-framed with face brick infill panels providing classrooms and staff and student amenities.[2]

Its location close to the Archbishop's Residence is unfortunate and its mass and basic detailing compromises the amenity of the Archbishop's Residence.[2]

As at 28 April 2010, St Patrick's Estate is a place of outstanding heritage significance to NSW and Australia. The 1885-1935 buildings and grounds of the estate make up one of Australia's most outstanding collegiate ensembles unrivalled for its completeness, grandeur and extraordinary siting. A monument to the establishment of Catholicism and the Catholic priesthood in Australia, St Patrick's Estate represents Australia's first national Catholic ecclesiastical seminary, the largest in the southern hemisphere at the time of its construction, the official national residence for the Archbishop for nearly a century, one of Australia's most extensive ecclesiastical estates and one of the oldest land grants to the Catholic Church. The College and the Archbishop's Residence have historical significance as important physical manifestations of Cardinal Moran's concepts and plans for the development of Catholicism in Australasia. The buildings have historical significance also for their associations people involved in the development of the College and Australia's priesthood.[2]

St Patrick's Estate is an outstanding landmark of Victorian Gothic architecture and natural splendour. The siting of the major buildings, their architectural style, impressive scale, and quality of design and construction are of aesthetic and social significance as they reflect the Catholic Church and Cardinal Moran's ambition that the Church's public buildings should aspire to reflect to the world the splendour of its spiritual ambitions and contribute to the fabric of national structures, worthy of a growing nation; and provide a legacy of grand ecclesiastic architecture. St Patrick's College is of aesthetic significance as it physically dominates the surrounding landscape of this part of North Head. The design of the buildings themselves is of aesthetic and social significance. The design reflects its role as a seminary and the special environment developed to encourage a devotion to the religious life is illustrated strongly in its layout.[2]

The College is socially significant to Australian Catholics, because it is a symbol of training Australian-born priests and centralising administration policy and education for the region. The St Patrick's Estate and in particular Moran House is socially significant to the wider community because of its visual prominence - it is a Manly landmark.[2]

Isolated physically and geographically on the Manly site, the Seminary buildings reflected the Church's perceptions of its special position and needs in the late 19th century. Social and cultural changes are evident in the further development of the site during the 20th century. The St Patrick's Estate has a significant relationship with the natural environment of North Head. Although isolated from the remainder of North Head by the construction of the sandstone boundary walls and the substantial clearing of the indigenous vegetation on the Estate, the St Patrick's Estate still maintains its historical and visual relationship with North Head.[2]

St Patricks Estate was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 21 January 2011 having satisfied the following criteria.[2]

The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales.

St. Patrick's College was the first National Catholic ecclesiastical seminary in Australia. Together with the Archbishop's Residence, the complex is historically significant as the physical representation of Cardinal Moran's concepts and plans for the development of Catholicism in Australia.[2]

The site has considerable significance containing an intact seminary complex developed over a period of 100 years. The grounds demonstrate, by virtue of a relatively intact layout and surviving major planting, 19th century site planning and landscaping relating to an institutional complex (Tanner & Associates Pty Ltd).[2]

The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales's history.

The development of the site is closely associated with the life work and aspirations of Cardinal Patrick Francis Moran, who was intent on establishing a major Catholic (in particular Irish Catholic) presence in Australasia.[2]

The site is also closely associated with all Archbishops (and Cardinals) of Sydney to date, in particular Kelly and Gilroy. It is also associated with key clergy who taught at or graduated from the Seminary.[2]

Cardinal Moran hosted the first Australasian Catholic Congress at St Patrick's, Manly in 1900.[2]

Sheerin and Hennessy were architects of considerable stature (Hennessy had been responsible for the completion of the Centennial Hall at the Sydney Town Hall) whose practice included major religious structures and city buildings. Later (in the 1930s) Scott, Green & Scott undertook important works on the site. Scott, Green & Scott are best known for their finely detailed residential and educational work, including large blocks of flats in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.[2]

St Patrick's College reflects Cardinal Moran's national ambitions to train the Catholic priesthood Australia-wide, in a context of teaching and scholarship comparable with similar international institutions (Tanner & Associates Pty Ltd).[2]

The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

The 1885-1935 buildings and grounds of the estate make up one of Australia's most outstanding collegiate ensembles unrivalled for its completeness, grandeur and extraordinary siting (Clive Lucas Stapleton and Partners, 1996).[2]

This is a remarkable natural landscape setting and series of man-made terraces overlooking the Pacific and Sydney Harbour, enhanced planting and historic buildings with a high degree of aesthetic unity and technical and creative excellence, showing architectural and landscape tastes fashionable in the late 19th and early 20th century. It is a particularly fine example of a purpose-built institutional group.[2]

The use of the Gothic style in the buildings is part of a substantial 19th century tradition. It was deemed most suitable for religious and educational structures.[2]

St. Patrick's Estate is aesthetically significant, retaining a largely intact visual setting because of the dominance of the northern Estate by the scale of St Patrick's College and the Ceretti Chapel over associated buildings and the open prospect of the coast and nearby suburbs.[2]

St Patrick's College is of exceptional aesthetic significance because of the landmark qualities of its Gothic Revival buildings set out in the Picturesque manner against a background that borrows elements from the adjacent heathland of the National Park, coastal cliffs, the ocean and Harbour.[2]

The Archbishop's Residence and grounds are of aesthetic significance as an example of the Victorian marine villa and its landscape. The Archbishop's Residence demonstrates the deliberate siting of the residence in the Picturesque manner to address views from or to the Harbour, while simultaneously featuring Gardenesque and Italianate garden themes at the immediate house scale. Material evidence of both these themes exists in the form of plantings, paths, walls, rock cut steps and avenues.[2]

St Patrick's Estate is of aesthetic significance as an outstanding cultural landscape in a wider natural setting, that demonstrates the development, cultural preferences and social values associated with Gardenesque, Italianate, Productive, Functional, Environmental and Ecological themes of development, many historically synchronous, in the context of an ecclesiastical institution functioning over a period of 100 years.[2]

As a major group of sandstone buildings, St Patrick's College and the Archbishop's Residence demonstrates a high quality of craft, and engineering skill and sense of place achieved using local sandstone.[2]

The buildings demonstrate in their planning a high regard for natural lighting and ventilation and fire safety.[2]

The place has strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons.

The combination of Gothic architecture and the Picturesque settings for buildings demonstrates the promotion of a moral and architectural purity characteristic of the development of Catholicism in Australia.[2]

The religious seminary and administrative function demonstrates a particular way of life and related functions held to be at the core of Catholicism.[2]

St Patrick's College, Manly reflects the desires of the Catholic Church that the Church's buildings be a public witness to Catholicism.[2]

St Patrick's Estate is held in contemporary esteem in the Manly community for its landmark qualities and for its amenity of open space.[2]

The location and prominent topography of the site, together with the siting of Moran House and the Chapel and their landscaped setting contribute to its landmark qualities and its wider community esteem.[2]

St Patrick's Estate is socially important to the Catholic Community of Australia through its influence in the training of priests for over one hundred years.[2]

The St Patrick's College Estate was established when the community of Manly was in its infancy. Manly's development has been socially and physically independent of the College. However, the wider community recognises that St Patrick's College Estate as an integral part of Manly.[2]

The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

Further documentary and insitu study of the Estate and the St Patrick's College has the potential to yield information contributing to an understanding of the history of Manly and the Catholic Church in New South Wales.[2]

For archaeological remains at precincts 5, 6, and 10:[2]

1. Criterion (a): Buried remains of the garden would be connected with the Catholic Church's ownership and use of the site and would contribute to an understanding of the development of the site and the layout of the garden.
2. Criterion (b): The area and garden are connected to the Archbishop and his residence.
3. Criterion (c): The buried remains would give a better understanding of the garden's design.
4. Criterion (d): No analysis of the importance of the site for the local community has been undertaken.
5. Criterion (e): Evidence of the buried garden features would allow a fuller appreciation of the whole garden to be made and would remove the present discontinuity between the upper and lower sections of the garden.
6. Criterion (f): Remains associated with gardens of this period are not particularly rare.
7. Criterion (g): The garden is an example of a large institutional-style landscaped area.

Evidence of the buried garden features are difficult to determine from the available plans and aerial photographs. Information on garden design and construction would be replicated on many other sites. The site is not regarded as being able to contribute to the knowledge of major research questions.[2]

The CMP found that the Archbishop's Residence is "integral and contributory to the historic and aesthetic development of the site and the landscape setting".[14] "Its gardens show classical principles of symmetry and geometry, with pleasure gardens, plantations, lawns and walks, garden beds, orchards and other ornamental/agricultural parts, laid out in geometric fashion below the Residence and both bounded and crossed by linear paths".[15][2]

The archaeological remains buried around Gilroy House would contribute to a fuller understanding of the garden and its development. These remains would have a medium level of heritage significance at a local level.[2]

The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

St Patrick's Estate is rare in Australasia as the only assemblage of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings that occupy such a visually prominent coastal location.[2]

The 1885-1935 buildings and grounds of the estate make up one of Australia's most outstanding collegiate ensembles unrivalled for its completeness, grandeur and extraordinary siting. The grand collegiate vision of Cardinal Moran was seldom attempted or achieved elsewhere in Australia. Ormond College at the University of Melbourne is of a size and completeness similar to St Patrick's but without the setting. Smaller but complete is the Newman College at the University of Melbourne and St Paul's College at the University of Sydney, yet without the grand setting. For siting it is unrivalled, but striking in the landscape are St Joseph's College and St Ignatius College in Sydney.[16][2]

The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places/environments in New South Wales.

St Patrick's Estate was the first National Catholic seminary in NSW. It demonstrates the spiritual ambitions of the Catholic Church in the training of priests over a period of 100 years.[2]

• Roman Catholicism in Australia

• Walsh, K. J., Yesterday's Seminary: A history of St Patrick's Manly, St Leonards, 1998, ISBN 1-86448-987-1
• Livingstone, K., The emergence of an Australian Catholic priesthood, 1835-1915, Sydney, 1977, ISBN 0-909246-36-X
• Geraghty, C., The Priest Factory: A Manly vision of triumph 1958-1962 and Beyond, 2003.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Patrick's Seminary, Manly.

• St Patrick's Estate
• NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, St Patrick's Estate