St Brigid's Red Hill

St Brigid's has been described as 'Brisbanes finest ecclesiastical building', the only other contenders for the title being St John's Cathedral and St Andrew's Uniting Church in the City. [1] A massive red brick structure, the building enjoys a commanding position, overlooking the city at Red Hill. It was built between 1912 and 1914 to the design of Australian architect Robin Dods, a partner in the Brisbane firm Hall & Dods,

to accommodate 1,000 worshippers ... replacing a small stone church which had served the parish since 1877. Its appearance stems from the directive of the Church Committee who commissioned Dods to design a church like the Cathedral at Albi [in France]. . . The essential fortress-like character of St Brigid's was unavoidable, therefore, as this was the major characteristic of "Albi". . . . While in the spirit of "Albi", Dods' creation is not a replica. Although inescapably cast in the Gothic idiom, ornamentation has been reduced to a minimum and the architect has succeeded in creating contemporary imagery in both choice of materials - red brick walls and grey tiled roof - and in its powerful form, the latter evidenced by tall supporting buttresses and infill brick panels penetrated by narrow windows and topped by projecting arched spandrels. [2]

The case of the organ (of polished silky oak) was designed by the architect to conform with the church architecture. [3]

The organ was built in 1913 by B.B.Whitehouse & Co. of Brisbane. [4] For many years, until the firm ceased operation in 1982, it enjoyed the advantage of close proximity to the builder's workshop, which (from 1921, when the name Whitehouse Bros was adopted) was situated on the opposite side of Musgrave Road. Placed in the west gallery of this reverberant church, the organ was one of the earliest by the firm to use pneumatic action. The chests are of the cone-pallet variety, fed by singlerise bellows. The organ was restored by WJ Simon Pierce in 2002.

As is true of other Whitehouse organs of the period and earlier, the pipework appears to derive from A. Palmer & Son of London, and the console fittings from Thomas Harrison of London. The console at Red Hill is unusual in that it has stopkeys (of the triangular block type) although the jambs are apparently designed as if for drawstops.

GREAT
Open Diapason
Stopt Diapason
Dulciana
Harmonic Flute
Principal
Fifteenth
Trumpet

SWELL
Double Diapason
Open Diapason
Lieblich Gedact
Salicional
Vox Angelica
Gemshorn
Piccolo
Cornopean
Oboe

PEDAL
Bourdon

8
8
8
4
4
2
8

16
8
8
8
8
4
2
8
8

16

stop-key console (attached)
3 combination pistons to Great Organ
3 combination pistons to Swell Organ
radiating concave pedalboard
balanced swell pedal (brass shoe)
crescendo pedal, with indicator above keyboards (not operative) *
swell tremulant
compass: 58/30 [51 pneumatic action

COUPLERS
Swell to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Swell to Great
Great Octave
Pedal Octave
Swell Sub Octave
Swell Super Octave

* added in the 1920s, but later disconnected.

[1 ] Nancy Underhill, 'St Brigid t Church, Red Hill'. Art and Australia, 15 (June 1978), 397-402.
[2] The Heritage of Australia: The Illustrated Register of the National Estate (South Melbourne: Macmillan, 1981), 4/20,
[3] Robert Riddel, 'St Brigid's Church, Red Hill - The Origins of its Architectural Style', Organ Society of Queensland Newsletter, 18, No 3 (December 1990), 17-24; Photographs in Geoffrey Cox, Gazetteer of Queensland Pipe Organs (Melbourne: Society of Organists, 1976) & on cover of Organ Society of Queensland Newsletter, 18, No 2 (October 1990).
[4] Whitehouse Bros Ust.
[5] Spec. noted Geoffrey Cox, 1974 and 1989.