Freemasons Hall Melbourne

The organ was built in 1888 by Fincham & Hobday and exhibited in the Melbourne Centennial International Exhibition of that year where it was awarded a First Order of Merit. In January 1890 it was installed at Freemasons Hall, Collins Street, Melbourne.

Following extensive alterations to the Hall, the instrument was sold and installed at the Lyceum Hall, Sydney in 1905 and removed in c.1929. Parts were used for other organs built by C.W. Leggo and S.T. Noad.

From the Organ Music Society website page on Wesley Uniting Church, Sydney:

1905: An organ by George Fincham (1888) was installed from the Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne (3 manuals, 42 speaking stops, tubular-pneumatic action) in the Lyceum Hall, Sydney. This organ had been installed in the Masonic Hall, Melbourne in 1889 and was subsequently sold in 1905 to Ebenezer Vickery MLC for installation in the Lyceum Hall which he donated to the Central Methodist Mission in 1908. This was the third largest organ built in 19th century Australia – the two that were larger were at the Exhibition Building, Melbourne (1880) and at the Australian Church, Melbourne (1890) both by the Fincham firm. It was a remarkable example of late nineteenth-century organbuilding in conservative Romantic style. While its sound is now beyond recall, the specification, with its well-developed Diapason ensemble (including the Pedal division with Principals at 8', 5-1/3' and 4' pitches) clearly reflects the classical outlook of conservative English builders like Hill & Son, who, in turn, had been influenced by the North German eighteenth-century organ. The specification of the 1888 Fincham organ was:

Lyceum Hall, Sydney (1888 Fincham organ)

Great
Double Open Diapason
Open Diapason
Loud Gamba
Clarabella
Octave
Wald Flute
Twelfth
Fifteenth
Mixture
Posaune
Clarion

Choir & Solo (enclosed)
Dulciana
Gamba
Voix Celeste
Lieblich Gedact
Flute Harmonique
Clear Flute
Piccolo Harmonique
Bassoon
Clarionet
Orchestral Oboe
Vox Humana
Oboe Clarion

16
8
8
8
4
4
3
2
3 ranks
8
4

8
8
8
8
8
4
2
16
8
8
8
4

Swell
Gedact
Geigen Principal
Gedact
Salicional
Gemshorn
Rohrflöte
Piccolo
Mixture
Cornopean
Oboe
Clarion

Pedal
Sub Bass
Open Diapason
Bourdon
Principal
Bass Flute
Twelfth
Fifteenth
Trombone

12 couplers
Tremulant
13 thumb pistons
Tubular pneumatic action

16
8
8
8
4
4
2
3 ranks
8
8
4

32
16
16
8
8
6
4
16

1928: The Fincham organ was removed and broken up and replaced by a 9-rank Christie (Hill, Norman & Beard) organ