Wesley College
Clunes Campus
(Formerly Clunes Wesleyan Church)

Photo: Simon Colvin

A particularly idiosyncratic bluestone church designed by JA Doane.  Building began in 1864, with a gallery on cast iron columns dating from 1868, but dates substantially from 1871. The façade incorporates a four light perpendicular Gothic window and a squat octagonal turret with an oversized roof. The interior, though it has subsequently been partitioned into two, includes cast iron gallery balustrading and a carved hammer beam ceiling. [Victorian Churches: their origins, their story & their architecture, edited by Miles Lewis. East Melbourne; National Trust of Australia (Victoria), 1991, p.150]

This English chamber organ was built in the 1860s by an unknown builder, possibly Francis Nicholson, of Newcastle, according to evidence within the pallet box. It was initially placed in the Wesleyan Church, Mt Erica, Prahran in the late 1860s and moved to the Wesleyan Church, Daylesford in 1871. It was installed at the Wesleyan Church, Clunes in 1882. This building is now part of the Wesley College Clunes Campus and the instrument has been fully restored in New Zealand, as the result of a generous benefaction, by the South Island Organ Company, of Timaru. It is placed on a moveable platform and is currently on loan to Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo where it is located in the South Transept.  The organ will return to Clunes when restoration work on the building is complete.

Photo JRM (in Sacred Heart Cathedral, Bendigo)

MANUAL Open Diapason Stop Diapason Bass Stopd Diapason Treble Keraulophon Dulciana Sw Principal Fifteenth

8ft [8] [8] [8] [8] 4 [2]

TC CC-BB TC TC TC

Compass: 54/29
Pedal pulldowns
Three composition pedals
Lever swell pedal
Mechanical action

Photos before restoration: Simon Colvin

Photos after restoration: JRM

A picture of the organ, from the Uniting Church Archives, Elsternwick, of the organ in its original siting in the Clunes building, centrally at the front.

Provided by JRM

4 photos above: JRM (Dec. 2007)