Maronites in Perth

The community that waited 130 years for a church, and finally built one

The Maronites in Perth are the youngest parish community in Maronite Australia, and in another sense one of the oldest. Lebanese migrants were stepping off ships at Fremantle in the 1890s, yet Western Australia only received its first Maronite church in July 2023, when Saint Charbel's in East Cannington was dedicated. This is the story of that long wait, a chapter the national picture of the Maronites in Australia can only sketch in passing.

How the Lebanese Came to Western Australia

The Lebanese have been settling in Western Australia since the 1890s, when sizeable communities were also forming in Sydney and Adelaide. Fremantle was a disembarkation point for many of the early migrants, recorded in the archives as Syrians, since Lebanon did not yet exist as a state.

The beginnings were hard. Colonial records describe a group of newly arrived Syrian men and women in Perth as destitute, some arrested for vagrancy, and other arrivals were refused permission to land under regulations against so-called coloured labour. From 1901 the White Australia policy closed the door almost entirely, and the community that had taken root stayed small.

Those who stayed did what Lebanese migrants did everywhere in Australia: they hawked goods through the towns and goldfields, opened shops, and held their faith at home. The later waves, after the Second World War and above all after the Lebanese Civil War began in 1975, brought new families west, though never in the numbers that reshaped Sydney and Melbourne.

Just under 250,000 Australians reported Lebanese ancestry in the 2021 census, the great majority in Sydney. The Western Australian community numbers in the thousands, scattered across Perth's suburbs, and its Maronites prayed for generations in Latin-rite parishes, keeping the memory of the Syriac chant without a sanctuary of their own.

Saint Charbel's Church, East Cannington

That changed on Sunday 9 July 2023. On that day Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay dedicated the altar of Saint Charbel's Church in East Cannington, in Perth's south-eastern suburbs, and Western Australia had its first Maronite church.

The building itself carries a double history. It was formerly Saint Francis Catholic Church, serving the Queens Park and East Cannington parish, and had closed in 2017. The Maronite community renovated the sacred space with care, and what had been an empty church became the home of an ancient rite new to the west coast.

The timing was no accident of the calendar. The dedication fell in the year of the eparchy's golden jubilee, fifty years after its establishment in 1973, and just days before the Feast of Saint Charbel on the third Sunday of July. For a community named after the hermit of Annaya, it felt like the saint himself had chosen the date. Read more about Saint Charbel, the wonder-worker whose name the parish and this app both carry.

The parish now celebrates the Divine Liturgy in the Maronite rite, in a blend of Arabic and English with the Syriac words of consecration sung in the old tongue. Mass times change, so confirm the current schedule through the parish's own channels before you visit. Newcomers are welcome, and you do not need to be Lebanese to attend.

The Sydney Connection

Perth has no Maronite eparchy of its own. Saint Charbel's belongs to the Maronite Eparchy of Australia, formally the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney, established in 1973 and later extended to cover all of Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania.

The eparchial seat is Saint Maroun's Cathedral in Redfern, Sydney, and the current bishop is Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, who flew across the continent to dedicate the East Cannington church himself. The Maronites in Sydney remain the heart of the Australian community, and Perth's parish is its westernmost outpost, four hours by air from the cathedral. For the full list of parishes city by city, see the directory of Maronite churches in Australia.

A Young Parish with Old Roots

A first church changes what a community can be. Before 2023, Maronite life in Perth ran on visits from travelling priests, borrowed altars, and the quiet persistence of families who taught their children the sign of the cross in Arabic. Now there is one address where the feast of Saint Maroun is kept on 9 February, where the novena to Saint Charbel is prayed, and where a Maronite baptism no longer requires a flight to Sydney.

The pattern is the one the Maronite tradition has repeated in every land it reached: the faith survives in homes for a generation or two, then builds an altar, and around the altar everything else gathers. Perth is at the beginning of that curve, where Sydney was a century ago.

What the community prays is the same everywhere. The Syriac chant, the liturgy of Antioch, and the devotion to the saints of Lebanon bind East Cannington to the villages of Lebanon as tightly as any parish in Beirut, across ten thousand kilometres of ocean.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a Maronite church in Perth?

Yes. Saint Charbel's Church in East Cannington, in Perth's south-eastern suburbs, is the first Maronite church in Western Australia. It was dedicated in July 2023 and belongs to the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney. Confirm current Mass times through the parish's own channels before you visit.

When was Saint Charbel's Church in East Cannington dedicated?

Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay dedicated the altar and officially opened Saint Charbel's Church on Sunday 9 July 2023. The building, formerly Saint Francis Catholic Church of the Queens Park and East Cannington parish, had closed in 2017 and was renovated by the Maronite community. The dedication coincided with the golden jubilee of the eparchy and came days before the Feast of Saint Charbel.

How many Maronites live in Perth?

Exact figures are hard to isolate because the census counts Lebanese ancestry rather than rite. Just under 250,000 Australians reported Lebanese ancestry in the 2021 census, the great majority in Sydney, while the Western Australian community numbers in the thousands. Perth's Maronites form a small but growing part of it, now gathered around their first parish church.

Does Perth have its own Maronite eparchy?

No. Perth has no separate eparchy. Saint Charbel's in East Cannington belongs to the Eparchy of Saint Maron of Sydney, which covers all of Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania, and is led by Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay from Saint Maroun's Cathedral in Redfern, Sydney.