Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Chermside
[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (January 2005)]
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Chermside
[Photograph by Geoffrey Cox (January 2005)]
Historical and Technical Documentation by Geoffrey Cox
© OHTA 2012 (last updated June 2012)
The organ formerly in this location was built in 1958 by the Charles Dirksen Organ Co. of Brisbane, and installed in time for the opening of the building on 31 August that year.1
Charles Dirksen, a Dutchman, had trained with the firm of L. Verschueren, Heythuysen, Netherlands, before migrating to Australia. He spent two years in Adelaide before moving to Brisbane in 1956 for his honeymoon. Deciding to stay in Brisbane, he set up his own business there, but returned to Holland around 1963 after a period of ill health. A specialist in pipe-making, Dirksen made his own metal and wooden pipes in Brisbane. Around 1957, he secured a contract to build small extension organs for some 14 Mormon churches around the country.2
Most of these, including the one for Chermside, were of two ranks. The other two-rank instruments in Queensland were at the Mormon chapel, Camp Hill (1957) and the Mormon Chapel, Toowoomba (1957). Four-rank extension instruments were supplied in Queensland for St Luke's Anglican Church, Ekibin (1957), the Mormon Chapel, Kangaroo Point (1958), the Presbyterian Church, Wynnum (1960), and Emmanuel College, St Lucia (1961). Alongside the Toowoomba instrument, the only other two-rank Dirksen organ to survive in its original location is at the Mormon Chapel, North Parramatta.
The Chermside organ was broken up around 1980 by H. W. Jarrott of Brisbane.3 The console was used by Jarrott in 1983 at SS Peter & Paul's Catholic Church, Bulimba.
| GREAT Bourdon Violin Diapason Stop Diapason Principal Flute Twelfth Fifteenth Piccolo SWELL Bourdon Violin Diapason Stop Diapason Principal Flute Nasard Fifteenth Piccolo PEDAL Bourdon Violin Diapason Stopped Flute Quint Principal Flute |
16 8 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 1 16 8 8 4 4 2-2/3 2 1 16 8 8 5-1/3 4 4 |
A B A B A B B B A B A B A A B B A B A A B A |
NO COUPLERS
Tremulant
Compass: [61/32?]
Direct electric action
Detached stop-key console
Balanced swell pedal.4
_________________________________________________________________
1 Date supplied by Bishop Alan G. Need, January 1974.
2 Personal communication to G. Cox from John Spall, an employee of Dirksen in Brisbane, 1973.
3 Personal communications to G. Cox from H.W. Jarrott, c.1985.
4 Personal communication to G. Cox from John Spall (former employee of Dirksen), c.1974, suggests that the specification was identical with those at Toowoomba and Camp Hill, upon which the stop list here is based.