Stone of Eternity

$25

In the early 1970s an Irish-born Dominican priest designed and supervised the building of a church for the Catholic parish of Doubleview in Perth, Western Australia. Fr Bonaventure Leahy OP, who had trained in building studies in Dublin in the 1940s, meticulously planned every aspect of the structure, its site and its fabric. He had completed other Dominican buildings across Australia and New Zealand in the previous two decades. Leahy's masterstroke at Doubleview was his choice of a WA quartzite rock known as Toodyay stone as the primary building material, deployed in vast curved walls. His design was revolutionary for the times, boldly accommodating the reforms to Catholic liturgy implemented by the Second Vatican Council. Painstakingly, Leahy conceived all elements of a structure that everyone, from the dedicated stonemasons who helped build it to all those who still admire it today, considers a masterpiece. As a modern