Emmanuel College Chapel, St Lucia
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
Emmanuel College Chapel, St Lucia
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012, 2014 (last updated September 2014)
Emmanuel College was founded by the Presbyterian Church of Queensland in 1911 as one of the earliest residential colleges of the University of Queensland. Originally located in the City of Brisbane on Wickham Terrace, the college moved to its present location at St Lucia in 1955.1 The original college site and building are now part of the St Andrew's War Memorial Hospital on Wickham Terrace.
Emmanuel College, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane, in 1930
[Photograph: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland]
The College Chapel at St Lucia was opened on 16 May 1959 by the Hon. A.R. Fletcher, MLA, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, and dedicated to the glory of God by the Right Reverend T.C. Watson, BA, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Queensland.2
The organ was built by the Charles Dirksen Organ Co Pty Ltd of Brisbane to mark the Jubilee year of the College in 1961, and was completed in September that year. The instrument was designed to be accommodated in the purpose-built organ chamber concealed behind the reredos, and to cost no more than £2,500. It was officially opened at the Jubilee Service held in the chapel on Sunday 8 October 1961.3 The console is located at the opposite end of the chapel, near the entrance.
Interior of Emmanuel College Chapel,
the reredos concealing the 1961 Dirksen organ
Console of the 1961 Dirksen organ
[Photographs by Howard Baker (1990s)]
This was the last of Dirksen's two-manual four-rank extension instruments in Queensland, the previous three having been for St Luke's Anglican Church, Ekibin (1957), the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Kangaroo Point (1958) and the Presbyterian Church, Wynnum (1960). Although smaller than the others in terms of the number of derived stops, the scheme followed the Wynnum instrument in maintaining greater independence between the manuals and relying on the maximum use of couplers.
A new Peterson swell-shutter motor was fitted to the instrument in 2014 by Ian D. Brown & Associates of Ballina.4
| GREAT Open Diapason Stopped Flute Principal Flute Quint Fifteenth SWELL Bourdon Salicional Stopped Flute Salicet Flute Nasard Salicet Tierce Quint Bassoon Oboe Oboe PEDAL Bourdon Flute Quint Bassoon Oboe COUPLERS Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Swell to Great |
8 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 16 8 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 1-3/5 1-1/3 16 8 4 16 8 5-1/3 16 4 |
A B A B A A B C B C B B C C C D D D B B B D D |
Tremolo
Detached stop-key console
Compass: 61/32
Direct Electric Action
Balanced Swell Pedal
3 thumb pistons to Great
3 thumb pistons to Swell.5
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1 Emmanuel College - Overview and History. http://www.emmanuel.uq.edu.au - accessed January 2012.
2 Plaque outside the chapel, cited 2009.
3 Details supplied by R.A. Busch (Principal) from college records, February 1974.
4 The Sydney Organ Journal, vol. 45, no. 4 (Spring 2014), p. 48.
5 Specification noted by G. Cox, May 1974.