St Mary's Anglican Church
Ballina

Ian D. Brown & Assoc. 1999, 2m., 19 sp. st., el.pn.

From SOJ Spring 1999 and Autumn 2003:

The Anglican parish of Ballina built a new St Mary's Church in the late 1990s. A "new" organ built by Ian Brown & Assoc. was installed 1999. The parish bought the 1909 Norman & Beard organ formerly in St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Parramatta. The specification of this organ was much altered during the 1960s using Dutch pipework of neo-classical style. This organ was combined with the Jarrott organ from the old St Mary's and some new material was added.

Having a detached drawstop console with electric action and a piston capture system in the chancel area, the organ is erected on a platform towards the side of the modern building. The organ case makes the best use of some recycled façade pipes but is otherwise a new design by Jennifer Brown.


Ian Brown writes (Aug 2010 to Trevor Bunning):

"The organ case has pipe shades with great swirls which represent wind. The Greek word for "wind" is the one from which we get our word "pneumatic". In the New Testament it is the same word used for "spirit". The design is a reflection on the fact that it is the same "breath", "wind", "spirit" of God which we breathe and which blows the organ, and that Ballina can sometimes be a windy place."


The specification is:

Great Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Dulciana Principal Wald Flute Twelfth Fifteenth Mixture Great to Pedal Swell Open Diapason Gedackt Gemshorn Principal Trumpet Tremulant Sub-Octave Unison Off Super Octave Swell to Great Swell to Pedal Pedal Bourdon Echo Bourdon Principal Bass Flute Fifteenth Double Trumpet

8 8 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 IV 8 8 4 2 8 16 16 8 8 4 16

Electric action
Detached drawstop console

Photos: Trevor Bunning (Aug 2010)