St Barnabas' Anglican Church, Ithaca
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
St Barnabas' Anglican Church, Ithaca
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012 (last updated May 2012)
This church dates from 1888, and was the mother church of the Anglican parish of Ithaca until 1996, when it became part of the parish of Ithaca-Red Hill.1
First Organ.
The first organ located in this church was built in 1913 by B.B. Whitehouse & Co. of Brisbane. It was dedicated at a special service on Wednesday 3 September that year, which also marked the 25th anniversary of the dedication of the church. Music for the occasion was provided by the church organist, Miss A. Morris, along with the choir and soloists.2
The 1913 Whitehouse organ at St Barnabas' Church, Ithaca
[Photograph by Elsie Anders (1982)]
This was one of the firm's early pneumatic-action organs, and a notably diminutive example of their standard design completed over two manuals.
| GREAT Open Diapason Dulciana SWELL Violin Diapason Stopped Diapason PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell Super Octave |
8 8 8 8 16 |
[gvd bass] [not operating through to Great] |
Attached stop-tablet console
Hitchdown-lever swell pedal
Compass: 58/30
Pneumatic action.3
In 1986 David Hudd carried out some tonal revisions, the original Great Dulciana 8ft being transposed to become Dulcet 4ft on the Swell, and the original Swell Violin Diapason 8ft to become Geigen Diapason 4ft on the Great. The instrument was otherwise unaltered.4
The church and organ were badly damaged by fire in January 1994.5 Some of the organ's pipework later found its way to the Uniting Church, Cleveland, and remnants of the instrument were purchased by David Cahill of Warwick.6
Present Organ.
The present organ at St Barnabas' was built in 1966 by Whitehouse Bros of Brisbane for the Kedron Methodist (later Uniting) Church.7 Like its counterpart in the nearby Kedron Presbyterian Church, built half a decade earlier, it was built to a tonal design that could conceivably have been associated with any of the firm's pneumatic-action instruments over the previous half century, but now employing electric action and minimal extension.
The 1966 Whitehouse Bros organ
now at St Barnabas' Anglican Church, Ithaca
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
The instrument was purchased by the Sandgate Uniting Church at some time prior to 1994, and was removed to storage at Deagon. In 1994, the Sandgate congregation also purchased the 1949 Whitehouse organ from the Lutwyche (formerly Methodist) Church, and there were plans to amalgamate the two into a new instrument at the Deagon Worship Centre. These plans were never realised, and the Kedron organ was purchased instead by David Cahill of Warwick. Following the destruction of the first organ at St Barnabas', however, the present instrument was installed to replace it around 1995.8
| GREAT Open Diapason Dulciana SWELL Salicional Flute Flute PEDAL Bourdon Cello COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell to Great Super Swell to Great Sub Great Octave Swell Super Swell Sub Swell Unison Off |
8 8 8 8 4 16 8 |
A B B A |
Tremulant
Electro-pneumatic & Direct Electric Action
Detached stop-key console
Compass: 61/30.9
Console details
of the 1966 Whitehouse Bros organ
[Photographs by David Vann (May 2012)]
____________________________________________________________________
1 Glenda Murrell, Anglican Records and Archive Centre Guide to Records - http://www.anglicanarchives.org.au - accessed January 2004.
2 The Brisbane Courier (6 September 1913), p. 16; Whitehouse Bros List.
3 Specification noted by G. Cox, March 1974.
4 Details supplied David Hudd.
5 Organ Society of Queensland Newsletter, vol. 1, no 2 (Feb 1994), p. 2; The Organ Voice, vol. 21, nos 2-3 (Summer/Autumn 1994), p. 85.
6 Personal communications to G. Cox from David Cahill and Ernest Day, April 2012.
7 Date from Whitehouse Bros Records, supplied by Mr K.M. Whitehouse, March 1974.
8 Personal communication to David Vann from David Cahill, February 2003.
9 Specification supplied to G. Cox by Graeme Morton, February 1974, and confirmed in photographs by David Vann, 2012.