St John's Anglican Church
 Bega

 John Smith c. 1850, res. Australian Pipes Organs 1991, 1m., 5 sp.st., tr.



Photo: Trevor Buning (April 1969)




From OHTA News July 1991


This single manual chamber organ was buiit by the distinguished Bristol organbuilder John Smith, probably about 1850. lts early history is unknown; it may have been exported together with one of the prefabricated cast iron churches sent out to Victoria from Bristol in the 1850s. The organ was in St Matthew's Anglican Church, Cheltenham, Victoria for many years and placed in St James-the-Great Anglican Church, East St Kilda from 1962 to 1990 where it was replaced by a chamber organ built by Samuel Joscelyne, the Tasmanian organbuilder.

Various alterations had been made to the organ over many years. The original upper side panels and cornice-work had been removed. The central flat of dummy wooden pipes had been replaced by a Iattice screen. The swell shutters had been replaced by new vertical shutters, the pedal pulldowns had been removed, the original reservoir had been replaced with a wind regulator, and the pipework had been rescaled and revoiced, and the Bell Gamba 8ft transposed to form a tapered Twelfth 2-2/3ft.

A full restoration of the organ has recently been completed by Australian Pipe Organs. The majority of the work has been carried out by the firm's Queensland director Martin Fowles. The casework has been restored and aII original missing sections replaced with new material based upon the design of the old. The missing central flat of dummy pipes has been replaced with new gilded 'flatbacks'. A new double-rise reservoir has been constructed, and an Open Diapason 8ft (tenor C) installed in place of the transposed Twelfth. The action and windchest have been fully restored. The organ was installed at Bega earlier this year (1991).



Photo: Trevor Bunning



The specification is:

MANUAL
Open diapason
Stopped diapason bass
Stopped diapason treble
Dulciana
Principal
Fifteenth

8
8
8
8
4
2
44 pipes
12 pipes
44 pipes
44 pipes
56 pipes
56 pipes

Compass 56 notes

Mechanical action