The former Infant Saviour Catholic Church, Burleigh Heads
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
The former Infant Saviour Catholic Church, Burleigh Heads
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012 (last updated April 2012)
The foundation stone of Infant Saviour Catholic Church was laid on Sunday 8 January 1933 by James Duhig, Archbishop of Brisbane.1 It was opened on 27 January 1935. Located prominently on the corner of Park Avenue and Connor Street, Burleigh Heads, the church was designed by the Brisbane based architect, J.P. Donoghue, and constructed of brick and fibro-cement with a decorative Spanish Mission masonry façade.2 The building was closed in August 2000 and subsequently demolished, with the intention of opening a smaller church in Park Avenue.3
Case of the organ in Infant Saviour Catholic Church
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
The organ that was formerly in this church was originally built in 1909 by Charles Richardson of Sydney, at a cost of £175, for Wesley Methodist (subsequently Uniting) Church, Wollongong, NSW. It was opened there on 23 March 1909. The case was built and presented to the church by Mr W. Moss of Smith's Hill, a suburb of Wollongong, and the original specification was as follows:
| GREAT Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Bass Clarabella Treble Dulciana Principal SWELL Lieblich Gedact Gamba PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Pedal Help Great to Pedals Swell to Great |
8 8 8 8 4 8 8 16 |
Tremulant
Mechanical action.4
Electric blowing was applied in 1922, and the organ was rebuilt with electro-pneumatic action in 1939-40 by Hill, Norman & Beard of Melbourne and enlarged according to a scheme devised by Norman W. McPherson. At the time of the re-opening in Wollongong on 6 May 1940, it comprised 11 speaking stops.5 The Oboe stop was added by S.T. Noad of Sydney, the date for this addition being given variously as 1950 or 1961.6
In 1982, the instrument was installed in Infant Saviour Catholic Church, Burleigh, by local organist, Ken Beech, with assistance from Brown & Arkley of Sydney. Two stops (Great Fifteenth 2ft + Mixture II) and one coupler were added at this time.7
The Hill, Norman & Beard console (1940)
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
| GREAT Open Diapason Clarabella Dulciana Principal Fifteenth Mixture SWELL Violin Diapason Lieblich Gedackt Gamba Geigen Principal Oboe Horn PEDAL Bourdon Bass Flute COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell Octave Swell Sub Octave Swell to Great Octave Swell to Great Great Sub Octave |
8 8 8 4 2 II 8 8 8 4 8 8 16 8 |
[1982] [1982] [1961?] A A [1982] |
Swell tremulant
Detached stop-key console
Electro-pneumatic action
Compass: 61/30
3 thumb pistons to Great Organ
3 thumb pistons to Swell Organ.8
When Infant Saviour Church was closed in August 2000, the organ was removed to storage at Marymount College (Burleigh Catholic Parish), Sunlight Drive, with a view to installation in a new church to be built on the Marymount site.9 The instrument was subsequently removed to storage at another location, where it suffered considerable water damage around 2008. It was sold in 2009 to David Cahill of Warwick, and has since been broken up.10
____________________________________________________________________
1 The Brisbane Courier (9 January 1933), p. 3; The Brisbane Courier (10 January 1933), p. 14.
2 The Courier-Mail (22 January 1935), p. 9; The Queenslander (24 January 1935), p. 46.
3 Personal communication to G. Cox from Ian Allen (Parish Manager, Marymount), January 2002.
4 Information and specification supplied by Kelvin Hastie from Trustees Minutes (1908-09), pp. 203-39; HN&B Order Book, ii; and from Ralph and Roslyn Parsons, One Hundred Years of Service: Centenary of Wesley Church, Wollongong, 1882-1982 (Kiama: Weston Printers, 1982), pp. 35-39.
5 Loc. cit; OHTA News, vol. 12, no. 2 (April 1988), p. 17.
6 R & R. Parsons, op.cit; Albums of Howard Baker.
7 Personal communication to G. Cox from Ken Beech, c.1985.
8 Specification noted at Infant Saviour Church by G. Cox, 1985.
9 Personal communication to G. Cox from Ian Allen (Parish Manager, Marymount), January 2002.
10 Personal communications to G. Cox from David Vann, c.2008, and David Cahill, April 2009.