Bega Anglican

St John's Anglican Church
Church Street, Bega

John Smith, Bristol before 1855
Restored and installed at Bega Australian Pipe Organs 1991
1 manual, 5 speaking stops, mechanical action

St John's Anglican Church, Bega:
exterior from the north-east
[photograph by Trevor Bunning (April 1969]

Historical and Technical Documentation by John Maidment
© OHTA, 2001 (last updated January 2016)

St John's Anglican Church was designed by the noted NSW architect Edmund Blacket. Built in brick with stone dressings and designed in a sparing Gothic style, it is of cruciform shape and the western façade is bisected by a central buttress and crowned by a bell turret. The church was built in 1874 and consecrated in 1882.¹

St John's Anglican Church, Bega:
casework of the Newing organ
[photograph by John Maidment (January 1967]

St John's Anglican Church, Bega:
console of the Newing organ
[photograph by John Maidment (January 1967]

Around 1952, Sydney amateur organbuilder J.A. Newing built as a War Memorial a three-manual organ with electric action incorporating 1922 Wurlitzer pipework from the Crystal Palace Theatre, George Street, Sydney.² The console - with illuminated stop touches, was located in the north transept on the floor, while the pipework and chests were located centrally in the rear gallery. The organ was removed in 1972 and parts sold to Terry Lloyd, in Canberra. It had three manuals, 30 speaking stops and seven couplers and consisted of a number of extended ranks.³

The present organ was built before 1855 by John Smith, Bristol, UK. This firm sent out five organs to Victoria at this time, three of which went to St Paul's and St Peter's Churches in Melbourne and the Philharmonic Society, and two for private clients, one for W.G. Dredge, Esq., and one for R. Smith, Esq., St Kilda.⁴ The St John's organ would have been one of these. Later, the organ was in St Matthew's Anglican Church, Cheltenham, Victoria from 1914 and placed in St James-the-Great Anglican Church, East St Kilda from 1962 to 1990 where it was replaced by a chamber organ built by Samuel Joscelyne, the Tasmanian organbuilder.

St James-the-Great Anglican Church, St Kilda, Vic.:
The John Smith organ after alterations in the 1960s
[photograph by W.G.S. Smith (c.1970]

Various alterations had been made to the organ over many years. The original upper side panels and cornice-work had been removed. The central flat of dummy wooden pipes had been replaced by a lattice screen. The swell shutters had been replaced by new vertical shutters, the pedal pulldowns had been removed, the original reservoir had been replaced with a wind regulator, and the pipework had been rescaled and revoiced, and the Bell Gamba 8ft transposed to form a tapered Twelfth 2-2/3ft.

St John's Anglican Church, Bega:
The John Smith organ after restoration
[photograph by Alan Caradus (December 2015]

A full restoration of the organ was completed by Australian Pipe Organs Pty Ltd in 1991. The majority of the work was carried out by the firm's Queensland director at the time Martin Fowles. The casework was restored and all original missing sections replaced with new material based upon the design of the old. The missing central flat of dummy pipes has been replaced with new gilded 'flatbacks'. A new double-rise reservoir has been constructed, and an Open Diapason 8ft (tenor C) installed in place of the transposed Twelfth using recycled plain metal. The action and wind chest have been fully restored.⁵

The organ was placed in St John's Church at this time. The original builder's hand-painted name plaque survives behind glass together with the original drawstops, on square shanks and key cheeks. The overall sound is charming and delicate.

St John's Anglican Church, Bega:
The John Smith organ after restoration: console detail showing script engraved drawstops and nameplate
[photograph by Alan Caradus (December 2015]

St John's Anglican Church, Bega:
Church interior
[photograph by Alan Caradus (December 2015]

St John's Anglican Church, Bega:
The west façade showing bellcote and central buttress
[photograph by Alan Caradus (December 2015]

3 Inspection of organ by John Maidment January 1967; personal communication John Barrett December 1972

4 Geoffrey Cox, 'The First Organ at St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne; part ii: John Smith and the La Trobe Connection'. OHTA News, vol 19, no 3 (July 1995), p.21

5 'Restorations – St John's Anglican Church, Bega, NSW', OHTA News, vol 15 no 3 (July 1991), p.6

6 Specification confirmed during visit to organ during the 2001 OHTA conference, Thursday 4 October 2001