St Peter's Anglican Cathedral
cnr King William Road & Pennington Terrace, North Adelaide

B 1929 Hill Norman & Beard
4 manuals, 50 speaking stops, 26 couplers, electro-pneumatic action.

Information quoted from CD program notes "Pipe Organs of Adelaide Volume 10" (AMCD971111) and written by Harold Fabrikant and Bruce Lindsay, 1997.


"St Peter's Cathedral received its first organ in 1876. Built by Bishop & Son, the organ contained 29 stops distributed over 3 manuals and pedals, being installed in what later became the Sacristy. With the addition of the present Nave and Lady Chapel, despite its substantial size it was considered inadequate for the enlarged building. The organ was removed to St Augustine's Anglican Church in suburban Unley where it survives to this day.

Development work on the Cathedral was funded from an Appeal launched in 1925 and from which funds were made available to purchase a new organ at an estimated cost of £7000.

The new instrument was dedicated at an opening recital on Sunday, July 6th, 1930, at which time a special collection attempted to make up a funding shortfall of £500, this despite the absence of the organ's casework and several stops.

The organ is significant in the history of Australian organ-building, since its commission coincided with several other major contracts won by HN & B (notably the replacement of the organ - destroyed by fire on February 1st, 1925 - in the Melbourne Town Hall, followed between 1925 and 1930 by contracts for new organs in Christchurch Cathedral, Christchurch City Hall, Dunedin Town Hall and the Presbyterian Assembly Hall in Sydney - now in Scotch College, Melbourne), and which justified the British parent company's establishment - in August 1926 - of an outpost factory in Clifton Hill (Melbourne) which survived until 1974. While its metal pipes were imported from England, as much as possible of the balance of the instrument was constructed locally.

Its specification was drawn up in consultation with A E H Nickson, an outstanding Melbourne-based organist and teacher, whose engagement included superintending its construction at Clifton Hill, and testing the finished work, when he is quoted by a Cathedral publication (c. 1930) as saying that "...he believed the Cathedral had now one of the finest organs in Australia".

It is also significant that the instrument remains today in largely the condition in which it was built nearly 70 years ago. Its Curator declares that all pipes installed in 1930 remain in playable condition, while major work has been limited to lifting the pitch to orchestral requirements and conversion of the bottom octave pipes to electro-pneumatic action (1971), installation of solid state switching for key and stop action (1983), replacement of the blowing system (1986), installation of a new 5-rank Mixture to the Great (1986), and the addition of a new Contra-Trombone 32' stop to the pedal division (1989). The first stage of the casework, to the original design of architect Walter Bagot and installed in his memory, was fitted in 1963 and has yet to be completed. The completed gothic design envisages a magnificent and elaborately carved timber frame encasing the towers and flats of the facade pipes."

The specification is:

Great Double Open Diapason Open Diapason No.1 Open Diapason No.2 Claribel Flute Corno Dolce Principal Harmonic Flute Quint Flute Fifteenth Sesquialtera 17.19.22 Mixture 15.19.22.26.29 Trumpet Clarion Swell to Great Swell Suboctave to Great Swell Octave to Great Choir to Great Choir Suboctave to Great Choir Octave to Great Solo to Great Solo Suboctave to Great Solo Octave to Great Great Pistons to Pedal Combinaton Swell Lieblich Bourdon Open Diapason Rohr Flöte Viol d'Orchestre Voix Celeste (TC) Principal Flute Fifteenth Mixture 12.17.19 Contra Fagotto Cornopean Oboe Clarion Suboctave Octave Unison Off Tremulant Solo to Swell Choir Gedeckt Gamba Unda Maris (TC) Suabe Flute Salicet Harmonic Piccolo Clarinet Orchestral Oboe Suboctave Octave Unison Off Tremulant Swell to Choir Swell Octave to Choir Solo to Choir Solo Harmonic Flute Violoncello Salicional Harmonic Flute Vox Humana Tuba Clarion Suboctave Octave Unison Off Tremulant Pedal Double Open Diapason Open Diapason Contra Bass Bourdon Violoncello Bass Flute Contra Trombone Trombone Trumpet Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Choir to Pedal Solo to Pedal

16 8 8 8 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 III V 8 4 Levers 16 8 8 8 8 4 4 2 III 16 8 8 4 8 8 8 4 4 2 8 8 8 8 8 4 8 8 4 32 16 16 16 8 8 32 16 8

B Added 1989 George Stephens All ranks have an extra octave of pipes for use with the Octave coupler Enclosed together with the Solo Enclosed together with the Choir Unenclosed Unenclosed B A - Added 1989 George Stephens A

Accessories
6 thumb pistons to Great (5 fixed, 1 adjustable)
6 thumb pistons to Swell (5 fixed, 1 adjustable)
4 thumb pistons to Choir (3 fixed, 1 adjustable)
4 thumb pistons to Solo (3 fixed, 1 adjustable)
5 combination pedal levers for Swell (duplicating thumb pistons)
4 combination pedal levers for Pedal (3 fixed, 1 adjustable)
Great to Pedal reversible thumb piston
Swell to Pedal reversible thumb piston
Solo to Great reversible thumb piston

Pedal Stops to Great Combination Pedals (this label is misleading, it should read: Great Pistons to Pedal Combination Levers - as there are insufficient pedal levers, these cover Great pistons 1 to 3 only).
Five separate Adjuster buttons, one for each division: to set a piston, draw the stops for that division then press the appropriate Adjuster button.

Compass: 61/32

Photos: MQ & TB













1930 Hill, Norman & Beard brochure and photos taken c.1930 (JRM)