EIGHT hundred pipes have made the journey from Ballarat to Creswick along with grand dreams of turning the Anglican Church into a place of heavenly performances.
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It’s just like a giant jigsaw puzzle with no picture.
- Campbell Hargraves, organ builder
The stunning 1889 pipe organ with an estimated value of $450,000 was acquired by Creswick’s St John’s Church upon the closure of the Barkly Street Uniting Church, with funding thanks to Heritage Victoria.
The Barkly Street Uniting Church was sold last year to a private investor among 56 properties auctioned to repay $36 million in debt from the financial collapse of Acacia College in Melbourne.
The pipe organ’s future was uncertain until a community-led campaign was spearheaded by the Organ Historical Trust of Australia.
It is intended the restored instrument will feature in the 2017 Organs of the Ballarat Goldfields festival program.
The process of disassembly and re-assembly is currently being undertaken by Melbourne-based company Hargraves Pipe Organs.
Organ builder Campbell Hargraves said it would take weeks for him and his colleague Justin McDonnell to reassemble the organ, which was first built by Australian company George Finsham and Co.
“It took five of us about four days to disassemble it, but it’s always much quicker to take it apart than put it back together,” he said.
The pipe organ, which has hundreds of tiny parts, is intricate work.
“It’s just like a giant jigsaw puzzle with no picture,” Mr Hargraves said.
“To me, most of the pieces are obvious where they go. I’ve been doing this since 1984, so most of the stuff I can see what it does and where it will go.”
The organ, with 50 visible and beautifully-decorated external pipes, is a huge coup for the small Napier Street church, which will be flooded with organ sound when the instrument is operational.
“It is quite generous in size for the building,” Mr Hargraves said.
“It made a good sound in the Barkly Street church; it’s in a much more favourable position here so yes, it will make a good sound.”
After the organ was disassembled, restores cleaned and repaired individual pieces while members of the Creswick parish stripped and replaced the church’s existing casework in order to make a grand new home for the organ.
The fully-restored organ will be celebrated with a recital on April 16 at 4.30pm.
