Geelong College
Aphrasia Street, Newtown
(1) Chapel
B 1991-92 Roger Pogson. 2m, 11spst, 3c, tr.
Gt: 8.8.4.2.III. Pos: 8.4.2.II. Ped: 16.8.
(2) Keith Humble Music School
B 1921 Wurlitzer Company, North Tonawanda, NY (opus 388)
for residence of W.A.. Crowle, Rose Bay, NSW;
inst 1928 "Montana‟, residence of Oswald C. Hearne, The Esplanade, Geelong
Reb, enl & inst 2006-10 present loc Theatre Organ Society of Australia (Victorian Division)
2m, 10rks ext, elpn.
One of Australia’s leading private schools, Geelong College opened in July 1861 and is noted for the excellence of its buildings, mostly in brick and in the Gothic style located in the Geelong suburb of Newtown.
CHAPEL
The chapel building was built in 1936 as a music school and was adapted for use as a chapel in 1989.
The organ was built by Roger Pogson, of Orange, NSW and completed early in 1993. It has a polished hardwood case with filigree pipeshades and tine facade pipes with arched impressed mouths. The console incorporates rosewood drawstops with porcelain labels and an inlaid builder’s platew. The organ is winded from a double-rise reservoir and the action utilises traditional components such as wooden trackers, iron roller-boards and wooden wind trunks.
GREAT
Principal8
Spill Flute
Octave
Sifflute
Mixture
Positive to Great
POSITIVE
Gedackt
Gemshorn
Principal
Sesquialtera
Tremulant
PEDAL
Subbass
Flute
Great to Pedal
Positive to Pedal
8
8
4
2
III
8
4
2
II
16
8
to BB with bass grooved to Spill Flute
19.22.26
19.24/12.17
A
A
Compass: 56/30
Attached drawknob console
Mechanical key & stop action
Vintage Victoriana: the XVIIth annual conference, The Organ Historical Trust of Australia, 23-29 September 1994, Conference booklet, p.58
Chapel & organ photos above: Trevor Bunning (June 2010)
KEITH HUMBLE CENTRE FOR MUSIC AND THE PERFORMING ARTS
The organ in the Keith Humble Centre was built by the American firm of Wurlitzer in 1921 as the firm’s opus 388, and was supplied to the firm’s Australian representative W.A. Crowle as a demonstration instrument for Australia: it had two manuals, seven extended ranks and electro-pneumatic action. In storage 1921-1923, Crowle had installed this instrument in his homes ‘Toftmonks’, Elizabeth Bay and ‘Wyldefel’, Potts Point, on the south side of Sydney Harbour. This was the first Wurlitzer organ to be exported to Australia that boasted a ‘horseshoe’ style console – earlier Wurlitzers, such as those at the Majestic and Melba Theatres in Melbourne has piano-style consoles.
The organ was sold in 1928 to the prominent Geelong-based manufacturing chemist Oswald Charles Hearne for placement in his large home ‘Montana’ on The Esplanade at Drumcondra. Oswald Hearne commissioned the local firm of architects Fred. C. Purnell FRVIA to make an extension to the house to accommodate the Wurlitzer organ. This consisted of an organ chamber placed over a porte cochère, opening into the upper stair hall through panels filled with perforated Crane Art Metal grilles. The organ spoke into a lofty two-storey entrance hall with blackwood staircase; the Honduras mahogany horseshoe-shaped console was unobtrusively placed beneath the stairs. The organ was installed by Eus Dodd, of J.E. Dodd & Sons, Adelaide.
The organ was equipped with a player mechanism that played standard piano rolls. A small player console was located on the stairway and had its own set of stopkeys to control registration. Only two other Wurlitzers exported to Australia were equipped with player mechanisms, these being located at the former Wintergarden Theatre, Brisbane and the Paramount Theatre, Melbourne. These units are now very rare indeed and the ‘Montana’ unit has been preserved, although not currently functional.
The organ was widely used for charity concerts during the 1930s and 1940s. Visitors to the house included Dr A.E. Floyd, from St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne (who struck up a warm friendship with Hearne – they were fellow Methodists), and William McKie, in the 1930s Director of Music at Geelong Grammar School and Melbourne City Organist. ABC broadcasts were also made from ‘Montana at this time. R.E.V. Church was Ossie Hearne’s favourite organist and again a frequent visitor together with theatre organists Arnold Coleman and Stanfield Holliday.
In 1948 a wooden Gedeckt was added by George Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd after Hearne had heard a similar Fincham stop at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Cressy. This displaced the Wurlitzer Flute, the pipes of which remained in storage. In 1989, a Wurlitzer Tibia rank was added which had come from a 1920 Wurlitzer organ formerly in the Lyceum Theatre, Duluth, Minnesota: the organ had never been equipped with this indispensible theatre organ sound. The organ was maintained for many years by Les McGill, from George Fincham & Sons Pty Ltd, and more recently Steve Laurie carried out regulation of the string ranks.
While Oswald Hearne died on 2 March 1950, his wife Alys remained at ‘Montana’. Their daughter Patricia (‘Pat’) married Alan Glover, who lived nearby and delighted in the Wurlitzer instrument. Alan is an OHTA member and a former president of the Theatre Organ Society of Australia (Victorian Division). He was instrumental in the donation of the instrument to Geelong College (his old school) by the trustees of the Hearne Estate following the sale of ‘Montana’. The organ has been placed in the auditorium of the Keith Humble Centre for Music and the Performing Arts which is a new building: it seats 250 people and the acoustic is highly sympathetic to the organ. The organ is placed in a large rectangular chamber high up on one of the side walls and the sound escapes through diagonal wooden slats.
The organ has been fully refurbished by a team headed by Julien Arnold, who has been responsible for the installation and renovation of most of the theatre organs in Victoria over the past few decades, including Kingston City Hall, Malvern Town Hall and the Dendy Theatre, Brighton. The original electro-mechanical switching has been upgraded to solid-state and there is a new piston selector system, although the original mechanisms and the player unit have been preserved. The console has been placed on a moveable platform; the stopkeys remain pneumatically actuated, with the wind transferred to the console by a flexible conduit. A Tuba Horn rank on 10 inch wind, extended to Ophecleide 16ft, originally placed in a contemporary Wurlitzer organ at the Wintergarden Theatre, Brisbane, and later in the Capri Theatre organ, Adelaide, has been added as there was some concern that the organ may not have been tonally adequate for a larger space, although in the event the organ fills the space with ease.
The organ was reopened at a recital given by Tony Fenelon on Tuesday 18 May 2010. He performed a diverse programme that amply demonstrated the instrument’s capabilities in performing ‘straight’ organ repertoire as well as popular music.
The organ has the following ranks:
Tuba Horn 16 *
Diaphone/Open Diapason 16
Tibia Clausa 8 *
Oboe Horn 8
Bourdon / Flute 16
Salicional 8
Viol Celeste 8
Gedeckt 4 *
Vox Humana 8
Dulciana 8 16
16
8
8
16
8
8
4
8
8
*
*
*
* ranks added post-1921
ACCOMPANIMENT
Bourdon 16
Salicional 16 TC
Tuba Horn 8
Open Diapason 8
Tibia Clausa 8
Oboe Horn 8
Salicional 8
Viol Celeste 8
Flute 8
Gedeckt 8
Vox Humana 8
Dulciana 8
Octave 4
Piccolo (Tibia) 4
Salicet 4
Viol Celeste 4
Flute 4
Gedeckt 4
Vox Humana 4
Dulcet 4
Nazard (Gedeckt) 2-2/3
Piccolo 2 (Gedeckt) 2
Tierce (Gedeckt) 1-3/5
Chrysoglott
Accompaniment Octave
Solo to Accompaniment
16
16
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
2-2/3
2
1-3/5
SOLO
Ophecleide 16
Diaphone 16
Tibia Clausa 16 TC
Oboe Horn 16
Salicional 16 TC
Bourdon 16
Vox Humana 16 TC
Tuba Horn 8
Open Diapason 8
Tibia Clausa 8
Oboe Horn 8
Strings II 8
Flute 8
Gedeckt 8
Vox Humana 8
Tibia Clausa 5-1/3
Clarion 4
Octave 4
Piccolo (Tibia) 4
Viols II 4
Flute 4
Gedeckt 4
Vox Humana 4
Twelfth (Tibia) 2-2/3
Twelfth 2-2/3
Piccolo (Tibia) 2
Fifteenth (Salicional) 2
Piccolo 2
Tierce 1-3/5
Glockenspiel
Xylophone
Chrysoglott
Chimes
Solo Sub Octave
Solo Unison Off
Solo Octave
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
5-1/3
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
2-2/3
2-2/3
2
2
2
1-3/5
PEDAL
Ophecleide 16
Diaphone 16
Bourdon 16
Tuba Horn 8
Open Diapason 8
Tibia Clausa 8
Salicional 8
Flute 8
Flute 4
Accompaniment to Pedal
Solo to Pedal
TREMULANTS
Tibia Clausa
Main
Vox Humana
Tuba Horn
16
16
16
8
8
8
8
8
4
10 thumb pistons to Accompaniment
10 thumb pistons to Solo
Accompaniment Cancel
Solo Cancel
Piston range
Piston memory
Piston set
Celeste off
Compass: 61/30
Electro-pneumatic key action
Balanced swell pedal
Information from an article in OHTA News July 2010 by John Maidment
Wurlitzer photos provided by JRM (June 2010)