St Peter's Catholic Church

235 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills

FIRST ORGAN: Flight & Robson, London, c.1810
1 manual, 4 speaking stops, mechanical action
Broken up c.1958.
Pipework used in new organ by Arthur Lord, Sydney, for Our Lady of Dolours Catholic Church, Chatswood

PRESENT ORGAN: George Fincham & Sons, Melbourne, 1967, for St Mary's Anglican Church, South Camberwell, Vic., incorporating some pre-existing pipework
2 manuals, 25 speaking stops, 8 couplers, electro-pneumatic action
Rebuilt and enlarged 2018 by Hargraves Pipes Organs, Mt Evelyn, Vic.
2 manuals, 24 speaking stops, 9 couplers, electro-pneumatic action

St Peter's Catholic Church, Surry Hills
[Photograph by James Goldrick (August 2018)]

Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2018 (last updated August 2018)

The Catholic Parish of St Peter, Surry Hills was founded in September 1880, when Archbishop Vaughan laid the foundation stone of a school-church. The present church, built in Gothic style, was designed by the architect Austin McKay, and opened on Sunday 26 May 1918.¹

First Organ.

The first organ in St Peter's church was reportedly made by Flight & Robson of London 'about 1810'. It was broken up around 1958, when its pipework was used in a new extension organ by Arthur Lord, an amateur organ builder, for Our Lady of Dolours Catholic Church, Chatswood.² Lord's instrument was subsequently broken up, and only the case remains at Chatswood.³

Present Organ.

The present organ was built in 1967 by George Fincham & Sons of Melbourne for St Mary's Anglican Church, South Camberwell, Vic. The work at Camberwell had been started by Harry Marriner, who built the console, but the remainder of the work, including the windchests, action and case, was by the Fincham firm.

The 1967 George Fincham & Sons organ
at St Mary's Anglican Church, South Camberwell, Vic.
[Photograph by John Maidment (October 2013)]




The 1967 George Fincham & Sons nameplate
[Photograph by James Goldrick (August 2018)]

The Camberwell instrument incorporated most of the pipework from an organ built in 1916 by Charles Richardson of Sydney for St Agnes' Anglican Church, Black Rock, Vic.⁴

Richardson's organ at Black Rock had comprised 2 manuals, 12 stops and 7 couplers, with tubular-pneumatic action.⁵ It appears that most of the 1916 pipework, apart from the Swell Harmonic Flute 4ft (as asterisked below), was used in the 1967 specification:

Detached stop-key console
Cancel bars above each division
Compass: 61/30
Electro-pneumatic action
Unit chests
Balanced mechanical swell pedal
Swell tremulant
3 thumb pistons to Great Organ
3 thumb pistons to Swell Organ
3 toe pistons to Great and Pedal
3 toe pistons to Swell and Pedal.⁶

The organ was removed to storage in 2016 by Hargraves Pipe Organs of Mt Evelyn, Vic., and installed in its present location in 2018. The choice of the Camberwell organ for the Surry Hills church involved consultancy within the parish and with many professionals, including Dr Kelvin Hastie and Mr Peter Kneeshaw.⁷

The new divided casework of Southern Mahogany was designed by Campbell Hargraves, with the Great and Pedal divisions on the left and the Swell on the right. With the provision of new independent ranks (using second-hand pipework, apart from the bottom octave of the Trombone) most of the original borrowing on the manuals has been removed. The new independent ranks provided in 2018 are the Great Harmonic Flute 4ft, Twelfth 2-2/3ft, Fifteenth 2ft and Trumpet 8ft (duplexed to the Pedal at 16ft and 8ft pitches), and the Swell Gemshorn 4ft. A new Peterson ICS 4000 switching system has been provided, including transposer, sequencer (256 levels of memory), playback function and MIDI connectivity. The super-octave couplers affect only the ranks at 2ft pitch and below.⁸

The new casework under construction
[Photograph by Trevor Bunning (July 2018)]






The new casework completed
[Photographs by James Goldrick (August 2018)]

Swell tremulant
Detached stop-key console
Compass: 61/30
Electro-pneumatic action (new chests: direct electric action)
Balanced electric swell pedal
3 thumb pistons to Great Organ
3 thumb pistons to Swell Organ
8 general thumb pistons
1 general cancel thumb piston
Swell to Pedal thumb piston (reversible)
Great to Pedal thumb piston (reversible)
Swell to Great thumb piston (reversible)
Auto Pedal button
Swell to Pedal toe piston (reversible)
Great to Pedal toe piston (reversible)
Swell to Great toe piston (reversible)
Tutti toe piston
Sequencer (256 levels of memory).⁹

The console and stop keys
[Photographs by James Goldrick (August 2018)]




The console with 2018 additions
[Photograph by Campbell Hargraves (August 2018)]

An inaugural recital at Surry Hills was given on Sunday 19 August 2018 by Thomas Wilson, Director of Music at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, followed by the dedication of the instrument on Sunday 11 November, by the Most Reverend Anthony Fisher, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney.

The interior of the church from beneath the gallery
[Photograph by James Goldrick (August 2018)]

______________________________________________________________________________________

1 The Freeman's Journal (25 September 1880), p. 17; (16 May 1918), p. 26; The Catholic Press (30 May 1918), p. 25.

2 Arthur Lord, 'The Organ in Our Lady of Dolours Church, Chatswood, NSW.' (manuscript) – cited in Graeme D. Rushworth, Historic Organs of New South Wales (Sydney: Hales & Iremonger, 1988), pp. 39, 239.

3 John Maidment, Gazetteer of New South Wales Pipe Organs (Melbourne: Society of Organists (Vic), 1981), p. 11.

4 Details supplied by John Maidment, August 2018.

5 Specification supplied by Robert Heatley to John Maidment, 1966.

6 Specification noted by John Maidment at Camberwell, c.1967.

7 Peter Kneeshaw, 'Pipe Organ for St Peter's, Surry Hills,' The Sydney Organ Journal, vol. 49, no. 4 (Spring 2018), pp. 41-42.

8 Details supplied by Campbell Hargraves, August 2018.

9 Specification supplied by Campbell Hargraves, August 2018.