Former Uniting (previously Presbyterian) Church

Strathmore (formerly Richmond) Street, Kedron

Whitehouse Bros, Brisbane, 1961
2 manuals, 6 speaking stops, electric action
Removed 2000 and incorporated into organ at Chermside-Kedron Community (Uniting) Church




The Uniting (formerly Presbyterian) Church, Kedron
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]


Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012 (last updated June 2012)

The Presbyterian Church, Kedron, was established in 1913, commencing with a Sunday School but gaining full church status in 1945.1 The congregation joined the Uniting Church in Australia in 1977.

This organ was built in 1961 by Whitehouse Bros of Brisbane.2 It was installed as a memorial to Harold Ernest Pashen who had been the organist of this church for more than thirty-four years.3

Comprising just four ranks spread over a six-stop specification, the tonal design with no stops above 8ft might be compared with the firm's much earlier small pneumatic-action instruments, such as that at St Barnabas' Anglican Church, Ithaca, (1913), but now employing electric action. The specification was identical with that at St John's Anglican Church, Nambour (1960). The use of a Cello 16ft rather than a Bourdon 16ft on the Pedal was an unusual feature of both the latter instruments, and can be observed earlier at the Baptist Church, Wynnum (1952).



The 1961 Whitehouse Bros organ
in the Uniting (formerly Presbyterian) Church, Kedron
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]

 

GREAT
Diapason
Dulciana

SWELL
Salicional
Gedact

PEDAL
Cello
Flute

COUPLERS
Swell to Great
Swell to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Great Super
Swell Super

8
8


8
8


16
8





A
B


A
B







  

Tremulant (general)
Detached stop-key console
Balanced swell pedal
Direct electric action
Compass: 61/30.4




Console of the 1961 Whitehouse Bros organ
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]

Following the closure of this church in 2000, the organ was removed to storage, and was amalgamated in 2002 by W.J. Simon Pierce with the 1950 Whitehouse Bros organ built for the Methodist Church, Chermside, for use in the combined worship centre of the Chermside-Kedron Community Church.

_________________________________________________________________________

1 John Oxley Library, 'Kedron' at http://blogs.slq.qld.gov.au/jol/2008/06/10/kedron - accessed 4 May 2012.

2 Date from Whitehouse Bros Records, supplied by Ian G. Tucker, c.1974.

3 The Organ Voice, vol. 28. no. 3 (September 2002), pp. 8-9.

4 Specification supplied by Ian G. Tucker, c.1974, and from The Organ Voice, vol. 28, no. 3 (September 2002), pp. 8-9.