The Presbyterian Church, Coorparoo
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
The Presbyterian Church, Coorparoo
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2011 (last updated November 2011)
Presbyterian services in Coorparoo were held from 1926 in the Shire Hall under the care of the Kirk Session of St John's, Annerley, but within a few years a church was built and in 1931 Coorparoo became a separate charge.1 The present brick church was opened on 11 November 1951.2
Interior of the Presbyterian Church, Coorparoo
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
The organ was built in 1962 by Whitehouse Bros of Brisbane. The pipework is entirely hidden behind a decorative grille at the front of the church. This was possibly the last new organ built by the firm with electro-pneumatic action, as they turned after this to direct electric action. The tonal design was conservative, with the specification differing little from that for the standard tubular-pneumatic organs of similar size built by the firm some four or five decades earlier.3 The extension of the Great Open Diapason 8ft to provide a Principal 4ft was nevertheless innovative.
An additional coupler (Swell Octave to Pedal) was added around 1978. In 1988, W.J. Simon Pierce replaced the original Echo Gamba 8ft on the Swell with a Dulcet 4ft (which came from the organ at St Augustine's Anglican Church, Hamilton). The original Echo Gamba from Coorparoo found its way to Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Fortitude Valley.4
Console of the 1962 Whitehouse Bros organ
[Photograph by Howard Baker (1990s)]
| GREAT Open Diapason Stopped Diapason Dulciana Principal SWELL Violin Diapason Dulcet Oboe PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Great Super Octave Swell to Great Sub Octave Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Great Octave Swell Super Octave Swell Sub Octave Swell Octave to Pedal |
8 8 8 4 8 4 8 16 |
A A |
[1988; replaced original Echo Gamba 8ft] [c.1978] |
Swell tremulant
Detached stop-key console
Electro-pneumatic action
Compass: 61/30
Balanced swell pedal.5
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1 Richard Bardon, The Centenary History of The Presbyterian Church of Queensland (Brisbane: W. R. Smith & Paterson, 1949), p. 226.
2 Coorparoo Memorial Presbyterian Church: A Jubilee History, 1926-76 (Coorparoo, 1976), cited by Rev. Phil Case in personal communication to G. Cox, November 2011.
3 Examples include the Methodist Church, Rockhampton (1913) and the Presbyterian Church, Fortitude Valley (1922).
4 Details of additions supplied by Bruce Lang (organist) and Simon Pierce, January 2001. See also: Organ Society of Queensland Newsletter, vol. 16, no. 5 (April 1989), p. 11.
5 Specification noted by G. Cox, 1973, adjusted here to accommodate 1988 changes.