The Presbyterian Worship and Ministry Centre, Dalby
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
The Presbyterian Worship and Ministry Centre, Dalby
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2011, 2016 (last updated January 2016)
Situated around one hundred kilometers west of Toowoomba, Dalby was first known as 'The Crossing', and then as 'Myall Creek', when it existed as a stopping point for teams and wagons on their way to Jimbour Station. It took on its present name in August 1863 when the municipality was officially proclaimed. Dalby was an early home for Presbyterianism in Queensland, services being held from the mid 1860s in the Court House. The first St Thomas' Presbyterian church, opened in 1869, was replaced by a fine brick church erected in 1933.1 The latter was superceded by the present Worship and Ministry Centre in 1992.2
The Presbyterian Church, Dalby,
brick church erected in 1933
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
The organ was built in September 1952 by Whitehouse Bros of Brisbane at a cost of £2,595.5.0., which included £386.5.0. for the detached console. The specification had been agreed in July 1948.3 This is one of the later examples of the highly standardised pneumatic-action organs built by the firm from the early 1910s onwards.
The specification is almost identical to that of the organs for Methodist Church, Morningside (1947) and the Methodist Church, Lutwyche (1949), except that a Dulcet 4ft is used here in place of the Principal 4ft on the Swell, as it was later also on the organs built for St Paul's Presbyterian Church, Mackay (1953) and Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Mackay (1956). The duplexing of the Swell string stop on the Great Organ had been a common feature on these instruments from the early 1930s onwards.
There have been no essential changes to the instrument since it was built, except that the console was moved by Whitehouse Bros within the old church in 1969, and the entire instrument was moved into the Worship and Ministry Centre at some time after the new centre was opened in 1992.
The 1952 Whitehouse Bros organ
in the Presbyterian Worship and Ministry Centre, Dalby
[Photographs by Howard Baker (1990s)]
| GREAT Open Diapason Salicional Flute SWELL Violin Diapason Lieblich Gedact Salicional Dulcet PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Pedals Great to Pedals Swell to Great Super |
8 8 4 8 8 8 4 16 |
[from Swell] [Chimney Flute] |
Tremulant (general)
Detached stop-key console
Balanced swell pedal
Tubular-pneumatic action
Compass: 61/30.4
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1 Richard Bardon, The Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland, 1849-1949 (Brisbane: W.R. Smith & Paterson, 1949), pp. 226-27.
2 Date of new Worship and Ministry Centre noted in photograph albums of Howard Baker, 1990s.
3 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1940-1954), p. 327.
4 Details cited by G. Cox in Whitehouse Bros records, January 1973.