Alfred Fuller, Kew, Melbourne

 

 

SCOTS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, FREMANTLE

 

The building was designed by Sir J.J. Talbot–Hobbs in an unusual rustic Gothic style and built in 1890 by Petrie and Co. in Fremantle limestone with contrasted quoining on the buttress faces and window edges.  The main facade incorporates a tower, with octagonal spire, porch and triple lancet windows.  Heritage Commission grants have assisted the restoration of the building and stained glass windows.

 

The organ was built by Alfred Fuller, of Kew, Victoria, in 1897 and is one of the final instruments he constructed before the closure of his business in 1900.  The date of installation in the church, and how it arrived in Western Australia, is uncertain.  It was restored in 1990 by F.J. Larner and Co. and more recently the decoration of the overpainted facade pipes has been restored by Pipe Organs WA.    The original hand blowing still survives.  The instrument is typical of Fuller's smaller instruments where the longest pipes are placed in towers at floor level on either side of the console, together with the absence of an internal passage board between the two manual chests.

 

GREAT				SWELL
Open Diapason	8			Lieblich Gedact	8
Claribel	8			Viola da Gamba	8  gvd bass
Dulciana	8	gvd bass		Lieblich Flute	4
Principal	4			Cornopean	8
Piccolo	2
				PEDAL
Compass: 56/30				Bourdon	16
4 couplers (incl Swell Octave)

Attached drawstop console with roll top                

Mechanical key and stop action                            

2 composition pedals to Great

2 composition pedals to Swell

Trigger swell lever

 

         •    The Heritage of Western Australia:  the illustrated register of the National Estate.  South Melbourne:  Macmillan, 1989, p.20.

 

         •    J.R. Elms, Gazetteer of Western Australian Pipe Organs.  Melbourne:  Society of Organists (Victoria) Inc., 1972.

 

         •    Pipe Organs WA website.