Mr Drozdovski said the St Nicholas community understood south-east Queensland needed to finds extra homes,but argued six to 10 storeys would still allow residential growth.

Brisbane City Council development assessment chair Amanda Cooper said she had asked council staff to talk to Philip Usher Constructions about the impact of its proposal on the church.

"I am also happy to talk to Mr Drozdovski to talk about this matter further,"she said.

Every Brisbane person has a right to see it at any time of the night or day and should not have to make special detours to see it because views to it are blocked out by the development.

Philip Usher Constructions development manager Glen Frew has declined to comment.

Woolloongabba was home to Australia's largest population of Russians in the early 1990s.

A Russian consulate existed in the early 1900s,where the Brisbane Polo Club sits today.

Former parishioner Galina Zakrjevsky wrote in her history of the cathedral:"Brisbane was usually the first port of call in Australia as Queensland offered the most generous subsidies of all the Australian States."

By 1911,Russian were the fourth-largest migrant group in Brisbane and St Nicholas'was the first Russian Orthodox Church in Australia.

It was established in 1923 and the existing church was built on Stanley Street by 1937,and by 1948 it was consecrated as the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

The historic cathedral once hosted acclaimed Russian ballerina Dame Anna Pavlova,who came to St Nicholas'to pray when she toured Australia in 1926 and 1929 and on nine subsequent tours of Australia.

Queensland's Heritage Register says the establishment of St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in Brisbane could be"contextualised within the wider pattern of Russian emigration following the Bolshevik coup of 1917,and the establishment of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad,and remains an important link between Queensland and the most significant political upheaval of the 20th century".

At yesterday's Palm Sunday celebrations,the St Nicholas church community gathered to fight the application,with the women of the Russian Orthodox Church ladies'auxiliary preparing posies for the day.

Mr Drozdovski said this rich Russian heritage should be preserved.

"The important point is that this is a heritage building,"he said.

"Every Brisbane person has a right to see it at any time of the night or day and should not have to make special detours to see it because views to it are blocked out by the development."