St Stephen's Anglican Church
Mittagong


[1861 E.F. Walcker & Cie., Ludwigsburg for 'Evangelische Kirche', Sydney,
i.e. German Lutheran Church, Goulburn Street, Sydney?].
Res. Alan Mildenhall, Campbelltown & inst. present location c.1971.


From SOJ March 1978:

At Mittagong, St Stephen's Anglican Church is a large stone building in the decorated Gothic style with some fine window tracery. It has an old organ of German origin; the builder is unkown - possibly it is a Walcker [further research suggests it was built in 1861 by E.F. Walcker & Cie., Ludwigsburg for the 'Evangelische Kirche', Sydney, i.e. German Lutheran Church, Goulburn Street, Sydney.] This firm exported a number of organs to New South Wales in the latter half of the 1800s. The casework, painted olive-green, is a bizarre fantasy in Gothic style and has to be seen to be believed! Previous resting places of this much travelled instrument include St Mary's, Singleton (1868), St Paul's, Stockton and St Peter's, Hamilton (1890), all in the Hunter Valley. It was restored and installed about 1971 by Alan Mildenhall of Campbelltown, Arthur Jones being responsible for the tonal regulation and conversion of a unison register to 2ft.

Robert Quinn sent further information by email [25 July 2022]:

The second manual was added by Mr Arthur Gee who also installed the organ at All Saints'Anglican Waitara. Arthur also played and maintained the Waitara organ for many years. Upon retirement in the late 80's he moved to Mittagong. He continued his interest in the organ, playing and maintaining the Mittagong instrument until early 2019, stepping down due to age and ill-health. About 1995 Arthur added an extra manual. The keyboard was repurposed from my "Selmer" electronic organ ex Berowra Baptist. This addition played the two extra ranks of pipes that Arthur purchased. The action was direct electric on chests using Reisner-type magnets, many of these were made by Arthur with extras purchased to make the number required. The additional pipework rather crowded the the space within the organ. After Arthur passed away in August 2019, these later additions became temperamental and were removed sometime during 2020, returning the instrument to its pre 1995 specification.



The specification is:

Manual
Open Diapason
Stopped Diapason bass
Stopped Diapason treble
Gamba
Dulciana
Principal
Flute
Fifteenth

Pedal
Bourdon

8
8
8
8
8
4
4
2


16


Ten. C
Ten. C
Ten. C

Ten. C

Manual to pedal coupler
Tracker action




Photo: Toby Tse








Photos: Trevor Bunning