St Carthage's Catholic Cathedral
cnr Leycester & Dawson Streets, Lismore

FIRST ORGAN: see: St Augustine-of-Hippo Catholic Church, Balmain

PRESENT ORGAN: J.E. Dodd, Adelaide, 1912
Partially electrified 1963-64 H.W. Jarrott, Brisbane
3 manuals, 39 speaking stops, 11 couplers, tubular-pneumatic & electro-pneumatic action
Rebuilt 1988 Brown & Arkley, Sydney
3 manuals, 47 speaking stops, 10 couplers, electro-pneumatic action

St Carthage's Catholic Cathedral, Lismore
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (September 2007)]


Historical and Technical Documentation by Kelvin Hastie and Pastór de Lasala
© OHTA 1998, 2014 (last updated April 2014)

 

The Cathedral Church of St Carthage was designed Wardell and Denning, 1905-07. By this time Wardell had already made his name, being responsible for designing two major city cathedrals, namely St Mary's, Sydney and St Patrick's, Melbourne.

St Carthage's is a beautiful red-brick structure of large proportion designed in cruciform plan, possessing a fine tower with a peal of bells, and a gallery housing the organ in the north-eastern transept. Between 1984 and 1988 the building was restored at a cost of close to $400,000.¹

 

First Organ.

The first organ to have stood in Carthage's was the 1886 organ now to be found on the western gallery of St Augustine's Catholic Church, Balmain in Sydney. Of interest, this Hill organ, originally built for the hall of the Young Men's Christian Association, Sydney, was installed in St Carthage's in mid-1907 and remained there until 1912.²

 

Present Organ.

The present organ, with its splendid twin cases and located in the transept gallery, was built in 1912 by J.E. Dodd of Adelaide. It was opened and blessed on Sunday 23 June 1912. Recitals were given by Ernest Truman, the Sydney City Organist, on the Monday and Wednesday following.³

Josiah Eustace Dodd (1856-1952) had been apprenticed to George Fincham in Melbourne at the age of thirteen. When Fincham established a branch in Adelaide in 1881, Dodd became co-manager before taking over full control in 1888. He bought out Fincham and established his own business in Adelaide in 1894. Dodd made his own wooden pipes, but imported his metal pipes from two firms: Alfred Palmer & Sons, London, and C.C. Michell of Wakefield. His contribution to the art of organbuilding was a conception of the romantic-symphonic organ.⁴

The 1912 J.E. Dodd organ
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (September 2007)]

In 1963-64 H.W. Jarrott of Brisbane electrified the Great and Choir divisions and part of the Pedal. At the same time, he made modifications to the console, removing the original stop knobs and replacing them with stop tabs. It was intended that the project might be completed over the coming years, but funding constraints prevented this.⁵

The organ's original specification was:⁶

GREAT Double Open Diapason Diapason Phonon Open Diapason Claribel Salicional Principal Harmonic Flute Superoctave Tromba SWELL Lieblich Bourdon Open Diapason Geigen Diapason Hohl Flute Aeoline Voix Celeste 2 rks Geigen Principal Flauto Traverso Mixture Contra Cornopean Cornopean Oboe Clarion CHOIR Melodic Diapason Lieblich Gedact Viole d'Orchestre Dolce Flute d'Orchestre Clarinet Vox Humana PEDAL Acoustic Bass Major Bass Open Diapason Sub Bass Echo Bourdon Principal [Bass Flute] Dolce Contra Fagotta Trumpet COUPLERS Swell Sub Octave Swell Super Octave Choir Sub Octave Choir Super Octave Choir to Great Swell to Great Swell to Choir Choir to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal Melody Coupler

16 8 8 8 8 4 4 2 8 16 8 8 8 8 8 4 4 III 16 8 8 4 8 8 8 8 4 8 8 32 16 16 16 16 8 [8] 8 16 8

Tubular-pneumatic action
Swell tremulant

[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (September 2007)]

With the restoration of the cathedral in the 1980s, a contract to rebuild the organ was signed with Brown and Arkley of Sydney in September 1986. The work was completed in February 1988 and the organ was dedicated on 4 March.⁷ It was decided to leave the Great, Swell and Pedal divisions essentially intact, while making controversial changes to the Choir.⁸ The work included the provision of a new draw-stop console, the removal of several original ranks from the Choir division, and the addition of some ranks with extensions.

The present 1988 specification of the rebuilt organ is:⁹

GREAT Double Open Diapason Open Diapason (no 1) large Open Diapason (no 2) small Claribel Salicional Principal Harmonic Flute Fifteenth [Mixture] Tromba Trompette Clarion SWELL Lieblich Bourdon Open Diapason Geigen Diapason Hohl Flute Aeoline Viol Celeste 2 rks Geigen Principal Flauto Traverso Mixture Contra Cornopean Cornopean Oboe Clarion CHOIR Lieblich Gedact Principal Wald Flute Nazard Piccolo Mixture Clarinet Tromba Trompette Clarion PEDAL Acoustic Bass Major Bass Open Diapason Sub Bass Echo Bourdon Principal Bass Flute Dolce Fifteenth Flute Posaune Trompette Clarion COUPLERS Swell Sub Octave Swell Super Octave Choir Sub Octave Choir Super Octave Choir to Great Swell to Great Swell to Choir Choir to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell to Pedal

16 8 8 8 8 4 4 2 8 8 4 16 8 8 8 8 8 4 4 III 16 8 8 4 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 III 8 8 8 4 32 16 16 16 16 8 8 8 4 44 16 8 4

[prepared for] A B B A B B C D C D B B B

ACCESSORIES
Swell tremulant
Choir tremulant
10 general thumb pistons
6 thumb pistons each to Sw
6 thumb pistons each to Gt
6 thumb pistons each to Ch
6 toe pistons to Ped
1 reversible toe piston Gt to Ped
1 reversible toe piston Sw to Ped
1 reversible thumb piston Gt to Ped
1 reversible thumb piston Sw to Ped
1 reversible thumb piston Sw to Gt
1 neutral set piston
1 setter piston
1 general cancel
1 switch to select any one of 4 memories
Balanced swell pedal to Swell
Balanced choir pedal to Choir

Compass: 61/30
action: Electro-pneumatic action

The 1988 drawstop console
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (September 2007)]

_____________________________________________________________

1 Warren Whitney, 'The Organs of St. Carthage's Catholic Cathedral, Lismore: Part 1, The Organ of St Carthage's,' Organ Society of Queensland Newsletter, vol. 15, no. 6 (June 1988), p. 36.

2 Graeme D. Rushworth, Historic Organs of New South Wales (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger, 1988), pp. 274-76.

3 The Northern Star (22 June 1912), p. 9; The Northern Star (27 June 1912), p. 4.

4 Bruce Naylor, 'J.E. Dodd – A Romantic Organbuilder,' OHTA News, vol. 5, no. 2 (April 1981), pp. 4-13.

5 Whitney, op. cit., p. 39.

6 Specification from W.H. McKelvie, 1974, in OHTA News, vol. 5, no. 2 (April 1981), p. 12.

7 Whitney, op. cit., p. 41.

8 Ian Brown, 'The Organs of St. Carthage's Catholic Cathedral, Lismore: Part 2, The Organ of St Carthage's,' Organ Society of Queensland Newsletter, vol. 15, no. 6 (June 1988), pp. 44-50.

9 Whitney, op. cit., p. 43.