The Chinese Christian Church Brisbane
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
The Chinese Christian Church Brisbane
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012, 2020 (last updated May 2020)
The former Ryans Road Methodist Church in St Lucia was sold by the Uniting Church in 1991, and is now owned by the Chinese Christian Church Brisbane Incorporated.1
The organ was built over a ten-year period by Noel M. Ferguson, an optometrist, for his residence in Cairns. When completed in 1951, it was described as follows:
CAIRNS, Sunday. — Working in his spare time a Cairns man has built a full-size organ in 10 years. It is believed to be the only genuine pipe organ in a private home in Queensland, and is worth about £6000.
Builder is Noel Ferguson, 42, an optometrist. Imported materials, including 134 metal pipes, have cost him nearly £1500.
Mr. Ferguson had made and tuned 142 wooden pipes, which vary in height from 8ft. to l-1/2in. They are made of kauri pine and cedar. They are built in on a verandah wall, behind a double row of shutters to mute the sound and adapt it to the size of the house. A small electric magnet is fitted under each pipe, while in the console at the other end of the room there are more than 3000 specially-made contacts of brass wire on silver.
The organ, which has 17 stops to alter the quality of tone, is built on the same lines as the Brisbane City Hall organ.
Tall, easy-going, Mr. Ferguson had only six months' organ tuition at the age of 16 from Mr. Archie Day. In the last 12 years he has been organist at the Cairns Central Methodist Church. His wife is an accomplished pianiste, and Mr. Ferguson has adapted several pieces of music to organ-piano duets.
All the organ building was done in a workshop under their house. Organ building is regarded as an expert combination of carpentry, turning, plumbing, and electrical work.
FOOTNOTE: But Mr. Ferguson calls in a carpenter when the steps of the house need repairing. 'That kind of work is too rough,' he said. 2
Cairns optometrist Mr. Noel Ferguson at his home-built organ
[The Courier-Mail (26 November 1951), p. 3]
The organ was scaled deliberately as a residence organ, and the reed rank was originally an Oboe that Ferguson re-voiced as a small-scale Trumpet. A description of the organ shortly after it was completed says that the pipework was entirely enclosed, and that there were two separate swell pedals, one for the Swell and one for the Great. The pistons were all adjustable at the rear of the console.3 The instrument was later removed to Ferguson's new residence in Nundah, Brisbane, and subsequently installed in its present location by H.W. Jarrott of Brisbane.
The date of installation in St Lucia by Jarrott was once thought to be 1970,4 but an inscription recently noted inside the console curiously dates the "Console Electric Action" to 1981:
Inscription inside the console by Bert Jarrott and Ray Smith
[Photograph supplied by Doug Milne, May 2020]
The organ originally comprised 4 ranks, extended over two manuals and pedals. Jarrott provided what appears to be a new perforated surround and a new console. He added an independent Clarinette 8ft stop on the Great and two other stops on the Pedal by borrowing from existing ranks, while leaving the rest of the original scheme essentially unchanged.5
The Noel M. Ferguson organ, as installed by H.W. Jarrott
in the Chinese Christian Church Brisbane
[Photographs by David Vann (May 2012)]
| GREAT Open Diapason Stop Diapason Salicional Principal Flute Trumpet Clarinette SWELL Open Diapason Stop Diapason Echo Gamba Gambette Trumpet Clarion PEDAL Harmonic Bass Bourdon Principal Bass Flute Viol Trombone |
8 8 8 4 4 8 8 8 8 8 4 8 4 32 16 8 8 8 8 |
A B C A B D A B C C D D B B A B C D |
[1970 or 1981?] [1970 or 1981?] [1970 or 1981?] |
Tremulant
No couplers
Compass: 61/30
Balanced swell pedal
Direct electric action
3 thumb pistons to Great
3 thumb pistons to Swell
2 toe pistons to Pedal.6
Console details of the organ, as completed by H.W. Jarrott
[Photographs by David Vann (May 2012)]
The organ was reportedly playable until around 2004, but was subsequently allowed to fall into a state of disrepair. In the latter half of 2019, Doug Milne (Pipe Organ Tuning and Maintenance) and Graham Hyde (Assistant Organist, St Thomas Anglican Church, Toowong) undertook extensive repairs, including the straightening and repair of bent pipes that had been allowed to fall, attention to sticking keys and stuck magnets, adjustment of tuning slides (metal pipes) and stoppers (wooden pipes), reduction of wind pressure from 5 inches to 3-1/4 inches, and the removal of a rat's nest.7
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1 Personal communication to David Vann from Gary Adsett (Manager, Property Services, Uniting Church), May 2012.
2 The Courier-Mail (26 November 1951), p. 3. A related account appeared in The Cairns Post (5 December 1951), p. 5.
3 Collected Organ Specifications of Bernie Brohan (c.1952).
4 Geoffrey Cox, "Lost in Far North Queensland: A Case of Two Disappearances," OHTA News, vol. 31, no. 3 (July 2007), pp. 12-18.
5 Personal communication to G. Cox from H.W. Jarrott, 1974.
6 Specification supplied by H.W. Jarrott, 1974. Details of pistons from the Collected Organ Specifications of Bernie Brohan (c.1952) and compass supplied by Graham Hyde, 2020.
7 Personal communications to G. Cox from Graham Hyde, May 2020.