Toorak Presbyterian Church – façade of the Alfred Fuller organ after 1881
[Toorak Uniting Church newsletter, n.d.]
The Kevin Wood Centre at St Leonard's College, Brighton
[photograph supplied by ??
Historical and Technical Documentation by John Maidment
© OHTA 2009, 2020 (last updated June 2020)
St Leonard's College was established in 1914, with eight students attending classes in a church hall in Brighton. The school moved to its current home in 1955. Coeducation was introduced in 1972, when enrolment was opened to boys and the school was renamed "St Leonard's College".1 It is now a leading independent coeducational private school. The multi-purpose hall known as the Kevin Wood Centre, where the organ is housed, was designed by architects Daryl Jackson Pty Ltd in 1979.2
The organ was constructed by the Kew organbuilder Alfred Fuller for the 1880 Melbourne Exhibition, and was described in The Illustrated Australian News as follows, shortly after the opening of the Exhibition:
In the gallery of the South transept will be found an organ built by Mr. A. Fuller, of Main Road, Kew. It has forty stops, three manuals and an independent pedal organ, one stop of which, the 16 feet trombone, with wooden pipes, is said to be the first made in the colony. Each sounding board or organ is constructed with pneumatic lever pallets, to render the touch perfectly light and free to the player. The construction of the swell organ has received careful study, in order to ensure a complete crescendo. The organ has six composition pedals, each having a separate combination of stops. The metal pipes and reeds are of the best London make. The great organ has the following stops:- open diapason, stopped diapason, clarabella, dulciana, principal, dolcan, waldflute, twelfth, fifteenth, mixture, trumpet. Swell: Bourdon, open diapason, stopped diapason, keraulophon, principal, gemshorn, flageolette, fifteenth, cornopean, hautboy, clarion. Choir: open diapason, viol de gamba, viola, principal, flute, piccolo, cremona, orchestral oboe. Pedal: open diapason, bourdon, trombone. Couplers: swell to great, great to choir, swell to choir, pedal to great, pedal to swell, pedal to choir, and octave coupler. The organ is arranged to be supplied with noiseless feeders either by hand or hydraulic power, which is a great improvement upon the old flap valve usually adopted.3
The organ had a very colourful case with both the façade pipes and case timbers elaborately painted, possibly reflecting Fuller's sojourn in the United States en route to Australia. It was the first organ Fuller built in Australia.
Toorak Presbyterian Church – façade of the Alfred Fuller organ after 1881
[Toorak Uniting Church newsletter, n.d.]
Sold to the Toorak Presbyterian Church in 1881, it was rebuilt by George Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd in 1926 and 1940 (when it was removed from the apse and divided on either side of the right transept with the Choir Organ placed centrally) and a new drawstop console was provided in 1957.4
Toorak Presbyterian Church – divided organ façade from 1940
[photograph by John Maidment (1966)]
The 1957 specification comprising 3 manuals and 36 speaking stops, was as follows:
| GREAT Double Open Diapason Open Diapason I Open Diapason II Claribel Dulciana Principal Harmonic Flute Twelfth Fifteenth Trumpet Swell to Great Sub Swell to Great Swell to Great Super Choir to Great Sub Choir to Great Choir to Great Super |
16 8 8 8 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 8 |
||
| SWELL Bourdon Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Gamba Viol d'Orchestre Voix Celeste Principal Fifteenth Cornopean Oboe Clarion Sub Octave Unison Off Octave Tremulant |
16 8 8 8 8 8 4 2 8 8 4 |
A TC |
|
| CHOIR (enclosed) Flute Dulciana Vox Angelica Flute Nazard Piccolo Clarinet Spare slide Sub Octave Unison Off Super Octave Tremulant Swell to Choir |
8 8 8 4 2-2/3 2 8 |
TC |
|
| PEDAL Open Diapason Bourdon Echo Bourdon Principal Bass Flute Octave Quint Fifteenth Trombone Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Choir to Pedal5 |
16 16 16 8 8 5-1/3 4 16 |
B C A B C C B wood |
St Leonard's College, Brighton – organ façade and console
[photograph by Liz Furman (June 2020)]
The organ was moved to St Leonard's College in Brighton where it was extensively rebuilt by S.J. Laurie Pty Ltd in 1981 and reduced in size to two manuals. The work included a new building frame, swell box, wind regulators, façade and console. The Mixture stops are entirely new and the stopped pedal 16ft rank increased in scale as there was insufficient space to accommodate the original Open Wood.6
St Leonard's College, Brighton – pipework, Great Organ
[photograph by Liz Furman (June 2020)]
| GREAT Bourdon Open Diapason Claribel Dulciana Principal Harmonic Flute Fifteenth Sesquialtera 12.17 Mixture 19.22.26 Trumpet Swell Sub Octave to Great Swell to Great Swell Octave to Great |
16 8 8 8 4 4 2 II III 8 |
A |
|
| SWELL Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Viole d'Orchestre Celeste Principal Nazard Flageolet Mixture 22.26.29.33 Cornopean Oboe Clarion Sub Octave Unison Off Octave |
8 8 8 8 4 2-2/3 2 IV 8 8 4 |
TC |
|
| PEDAL Stopped Diapason Bourdon Principal Bass Flute Octave Sesquialtera 12.17 Trombone Clarinet Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal |
16 16 8 8 4 II 16 4 |
B A C B C |
Compass: 61/32
Detached mobile console with illuminated push button stop control
Electro-pneumatic action7
St Leonard's College, Brighton – console detail
[photograph by Liz Furman (June 2020)]
1 List of organs built or rebuilt by Geo.Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd - accessed June 2020.
2 Steve Laurie, 'The Marjorie Mohr Memorial Organ in St Leonard's College, East Brighton,' Victorian Organ Journal (June 1984), pp. 6-10.
3 The Illustrated Australian News (6 November 1880), p. 211.
4 List of organs built or rebuilt by Geo. Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd.
5 Specification noted by John Maidment, 1966.
6 Steve Laurie, ibid., pp. 8-9.
7 Bob Jefferson, Steve Laurie, Organ Builder: His Life and Works. (Balnarring, Vic: the Author, 1998), p. 212.