Uniting Church (former Wesleyan Methodist Church)

Closed April 2018

Pleasant Street, Ballarat

First organ, built by Jesse Biggs 1855-57,
moved to St Mark's Church, Camberwell and
St Paul's Anglican Church, Fairfield – broken up c.1968
Present organ, built 1921 Geo.Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd
2 manuals, 14 speaking stops, 4 couplers, tubular-pneumatic action




Uniting Church, Pleasant Street, Ballarat
[photograph from Wikimedia Commons]



Historical and Technical Documentation by John Maidment
© OHTA 2018 (last updated June 2018)


The Wesleyan Church, Pleasant Street, Ballarat, dating from 1867, was designed by the prominent Ballarat architect J.A. Doane in Early-English Gothic style and constructed in brick with freestone dressings. The building was extended in 1886 to the design of C.D. Figgis.1 It consists of a buttressed nave with the organ and choir placed in a gallery at the front with cast iron balustrading. The façade incorporates five lancet windows.

FIRST ORGAN

The first organ, built by Melbourne organbuilder Jesse Biggs around 1855-57 was moved to Pleasant Street in 1874 where it remained until 1921. This instrument, now destroyed, was later at St Paul's Anglican Church, Fairfield.

PRESENT ORGAN



Uniting Church, Pleasant Street, Ballarat – organ case
[photograph by Ken Falconer (June 2018)]

The present organ was built in 1921 by Geo. Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd and remains unaltered. It retains its hardwood case and console, with the firm's Hope-Jones style endolithic-engraved stopkeys, tubular-pneumatic action and pipework. The nameplate states Geo.Fincham & Son, Melbourne & Sydney, but these dated from before 1910 and were successively used.

GREAT
Open Diapason
Claribel
Dulciana
Principal
Clear Flute
Fifteenth
Swell to Great

SWELL
Open Diapason
Lieblich Gedacht
Viol d'Orchestre
Voix Celeste
Octave
Oboe
Swell Super Octave
Tremulant

PEDAL
Bourdon
Echo Bourdon
Great to Pedal
Swell to Pedal

8
8
8
4
4
2



8
8
8
8
4
8




16
16










bass in façade


TC







derived from Bourdon at lower wind pressure


  

Compass: 61/30
Tubular-pneumatic action
Detached stopkey console
3 thumb pistons to Great
3 thumb pistons to Swell
Balanced mechanical swell pedal.2




Uniting Church, Pleasant Street, Ballarat – console
[photograph by Ken Falconer (June 2018)]




Uniting Church, Pleasant Street, Ballarat – stopkeys
[photograph by Ken Falconer (June 2018)]




Uniting Church, Pleasant Street, Ballarat – organ case detail
[photograph by Ken Falconer (June 2018)]


1 https://bih.federation.edu.au/index.php/Joseph_Attwood_Doane

2 Specification supplied by John Cowan 1966