St Barnabas Anglican Church East Roseville Organ

St Barnabas' Anglican Church
cnr. William & Macquarie Streets, East Roseville
B. 1930 Whitehouse Bros., Brisbane
Reb. 1962 H. Goris, 1976 Electrified and changes Pitchford & Garside
2m.: 17 sp. st., 8c., el.pn.
Gt: 8.8.8.4.4.2.2. Sw: 8.8.8.4.II.8.8. Ped: 16.8.4

Dr Kelvin Hastie writes in OHTA News April 2008 (pp.17-18):

One Whitehouse instrument that still retains all its original stops, but which is overshadowed by later additions, can be found at St Barnabas' Anglican Church, Rosevill East. Here, an incomplete 'octopod' Romantic instrument (1931), was totally transformed in 1962 by enlargements in a Neo-classical style. The pamphlet provided at the service of dedication describes the process adopted:

'The organ at St Barnabas' was built by the well-known Brisbane organbuilders, Whitehouse Bros., about 30 years ago but, due to shortage of funds, was not completed at that time.

It is a two-manual instrument with full pedal board, and the action throughout is tubular-pneumatic.

The specification below indicates the pipework originally installed by Whitehouse Bros. and of this, the metal ranks are of English origin while the wooden ranks were made in the Brisbane workshops of Whitehouse Bros., together with the windchests, ducting, swell box, etc. Fortunately the quality of the original organ was good and left no doubt as to the wisdom of spending quite a substantial sum on the work of renovating and completing the instrument.

The task of renovation and completion was entrusted to Mr H. Goris, who is the Australian representative of Firma B. Pels, of Alkmaar, Holland - a large firm of organbuilders. Mr Goris, in consultation with the church officers, went to great pains to work out a plan of completion which has resulted in a fine instrument well suited for its purpose and for the size of the building.' [1]

The specification of the organ after the Goris rebuild was as follows (note that the original seven Whitehouse stops are marked with an asterisk - all other pipework came from Pels) [2]:

Great
Open Diapason
Bourdon
Dulciana
Principal
Koppel Flute
Block Flute
Mixture

Swell
Violin Diapason
Lieblich Gedact
Echo Gamba
Gemshorn
Nazard
Oboe
Trumpet
Tremulant

Pedal
Bourdon
Bass Flute

Couplers
Swell Suboctave
Swell Superoctave
Swell to Pedal
Great to Pedal
Swell to Great
Swell Sub to Great
Swell Super to Great
Great Superoctave

8
8
8
4
4
2
III-IV

8
8
8
4
2-2/3
8
8

16
8

*

*

*
*
*

*

A *
A

It is interesting to note that H. Goris, referred to above, was in Australia to erect a three-manual B. Pels & Zoon organ in St John's Presbyterian Church, Wahroonga, installed in 1961. The Roseville East organ was electrified in 1976 by Pitchford & Garside, who made a number of changes to the specification, including the removal of the Great Mixture and its replacement by a second 2-foot stop, installation of a Mixture II in the Swell in place of the Nazard 2-2/3, and the extension of the Pedal stop to 4-foot pitch. [3]

The current specification is:

[1] "St Barnabas' Church of England, Roseville East. Service of Dedication of Completed Organ by The Right Rev. M.L. Loane, MA, DD, Bishop Coadjutor of Sydney, Sunday 11 November, 1962 at 3pm." Copy of service and recital programme provided by Peter Meyer, October 2007.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Information supplied by Stuart Garside, July 1997.