The Uniting (formerly Presbyterian) Church, St Lucia
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
The Uniting (formerly Presbyterian) Church, St Lucia
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012, 2013 (last updated May 2013)
The organ in this church was built in 1954 by Whitehouse Bros of Brisbane at a cost of £2,695.1 The gift of Mr & Mrs W.A. Back, it was dedicated at the morning service on Sunday 13 June that year, and a recital was given in the afternoon by Mr Archie Day, the Brisbane City Organist.2
Gift plaque on the 1954 Whitehouse Bros organ
[Photograph by David Vann (May 2012)]
Along with the Whitehouse Bros organs at Cromwell College, St Lucia (1955), St Paul's Anglican Church, Ashgrove (1955), Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Mackay (1956) and at St Finbarr's Catholic Church, Ashgrove (1957), this was one of the last pneumatic-action organs built by the firm, and one of the last such instruments built in Australia. The specification of the St Lucia organ differed little from those of other instruments built by the firm from the 1910s onwards. It was unusual, though not unique, in having a reverse console. The casework and console fittings were standard for Whitehouse Bros instruments of the period.
The 1954 Whitehouse Bros organ
in the Uniting (formerly Presbyterian) Church, St Lucia
[Photographs by David Vann (May 2012)]
| GREAT Open Diapason Dulciana Principal SWELL Gedact Salicional Oboe PEDAL Bourdon COUPLERS Swell to Great Swell to Pedal Great to Pedal Swell Super Swell to Great Super |
8 8 4 8 8 8 16 |
Swell tremulant
Balanced swell pedal
Tubular-pneumatic action
Compass: 61/30.3
Stop-tabs on the 1954 Whitehouse Bros organ
[Photographs by David Vann (May 2012)]
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1 Whitehouse Bros Ledger (1940-1954), p. 153.
2 The Courier-Mail (9 June 1954), p. 8.
3 Specification supplied by Rev. L.H. Brockway, May 1974, confirmed in photographs by David Vann, May 2012.