St John's Anglican Church, Burleigh Heads
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
St John's Anglican Church, Burleigh Heads
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012, 2015 (last updated May 2015))
The first Anglican church at Burleigh Heads was a timber building built in 1926. The present brick church was dedicated as the War Memorial Church of St John the Evangelist by Archbishop Halse on 10 February 1962.1
The organ in this church was built originally in 1950 by S.T. Noad of Sydney for the North Croydon Methodist (subsequently Uniting) Church, NSW. It was built during times of austerity following the Second World War, and a plaque on the organ recorded that the installation 'was made possible by the efforts of the young people of this church,' and that it was 'dedicated to the Glory of God by The Revd G. T. Moore, 27th August 1950.' An unusual feature was that the original (attached) console was enclosed by glass doors.2
The 1950 Noad organ at the former North Croydon Methodist Church, NSW
[Photographs by Kelvin Hastie (January 1980)]
On the original single-manual instrument, all the manual pipework apart from the Open Diapason 8ft was enclosed, and the specification was as follows:
| MANUAL Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Dulciana Principal Oboe PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Octave Manual to Pedal |
8 8 8 4 8 16 |
[unenclosed] [prepared for] |
Tremulant
Attached stop-key console
Compass: 61/30
Balanced swell pedal
Electro-pneumatic action.3
The North Croydon Uniting Church became redundant in 1991, and is now part of an aged-care complex.4 The organ was offered to the Burleigh Heads Anglican parish at no cost other than that of removal, transport and installation.5 It was removed to Burleigh Heads in March 1992 and installed in its present location by a band of parish volunteers under the direction of Ian Brown & Associates of Ballina. This was the first and only organ by S.T. Noad to be installed in Queensland, some 21 years after Noad's death.6
The rebuilt and enlarged S.T. Noad organ
installed at St John's Anglican Church, Burleigh Heads
[Photograph by David Vann (January 2007)]
The rebuilt and enlarged S.T. Noad organ
installed at St John's Anglican Church, Burleigh Heads
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
The spare ventil reserved for a manual reed stop was filled by a new Fifteenth 2ft stop, and the original specification was re-configured over two manuals using a second-hand two-manual console (originally at St Mark's Anglican Church, Northbridge, NSW). The original Open Diapason 8ft, which had always been on a separate unenclosed chest, was transferred to the Great and extended to provide a Principal 4ft stop.7
The console was placed initially near the door to the vestry, at some distance from the organ itself at the back of the church. It was moved in 1999 to the back of the church beside the organ.8 Following problems with the solid state equipment installed in 1992, and after the English firm that supplied it had ceased to operate, the solid state switching in the organ was completely replaced in 2015.9
| GREAT Open Diapason Principal SWELL Gedacht Gamba Gemshorn Fifteenth PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell Sub Octave Swell Super Octave |
8 4 8 8 4 2 16 |
A A |
[1992] [1992] |
Swell tremulant
Detached stop-key console
Compass: 61/30
Electric swell mechanism
Electro-pneumatic action.10
The second-hand console from St Mark's Anglican Church, Northbridge,
installed in 1992 at Burleigh Heads by Ian Brown & Associates, Ballina
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
____________________________________________________________________
1 Margaret Thornton, The First 80 Years: A History of St John's Anglican Church, Burleigh Heads, 1926-2006 (Burleigh Heads, St John's Anglican Church, 2011), pp. 3, 14.
2 Kelvin Hastie, 'The Destruction of Diversity: Lost Sounds, Part III,' The Sydney Organ Journal, vol. 38, no. 1 (Summer 2006-2007), pp. 51-52.
3 Specification noted at North Croydon by Kelvin Hastie, January 1980.
4 Personal communication from Kelvin Hastie to G. Cox, August 2001.
5 Thornton, op. cit., p. 59.
6 Ian D. Brown & Associates, 'St John's Anglican Church, Burleigh Heads,' (8 March 1994), reproduced in The Organ Voice, vol. 23, no. 4 (December 1997), pp. 18-19, and provided in personal communication to G. Cox from Ian Brown, August 2003.
7 Ian D. Brown & Associates, op. cit.
8 Thornton, op. cit., p. 59.
9 Ian D. Brown & Associates Newsletter (June 2015), p. 2.
10 Specification from Ian D. Brown & Associates, op. cit.