South Island organ Company

ST PATRICK'S BASILICA, FREMANTLE

St Patrick’s Basilica is a magnificent stone building in 14th century Gothic style, with flying buttresses flanking the west front and a traceried window of eight lights. The building was designed by Michael Francis Cavanagh, the foundation stone was laid on St Patrick’s Day, 17 March 1898 and the nave opened on 3 June 1900; his design envisaged a spacious nave with aisles and clerestory, transepts, a wide and spacious apse, and a colossal tower and spire (supported by flying buttresses) rising from the northern side of the building. Only the nave was initially completed and a new sanctuary of equivalent scale was opened on 24 April 1960. The building was raised to the status of a minor basilica in 1994, one of only four buildings in Australia sharing this distinction.

The original two manual organ was by Bishop & Son, of London, supplied in 1895; this was electrified in the 1960s by J.E.Dodd & Sons Gunstar Organ Works who divided the case and provided some extensions. When the organ was dismantled in the 1980s, it was found that the great chest was inscribed “Kendall of Kensington 1851”, so the Bishop organ, with its diminutive swell compass, may have arrived in the West secondhand. According to the Directory of British Organ Builders, Edward Kendall was working as an organbuilder in Kensington, London between 1826 and 1855 and was born c. 1795.

The present organ dates from 1988-90 and was built by Bellsham Pipe Organs (Aust.) Pty Ltd and incorporated some of the pipework and chests from the Bishop organ. Apart from the divided Grand Organ in the west gallery, it incorporated an interconnected twomanual organ in the south transept. The organs were given as a thanksgiving in memory of the many priests of the Congregation of Oblates of Mary Immaculate who have served the parish since their arrival from Ireland in 1894.

This instrument was extensively rebuilt and enlarged by the South Island Organ Company Ltd, of Timaru, New Zealand, with Rod Junor as consultant, and resulted from a generous gift by the Hughes family in memory of Alice Hughes. The work was completed for Easter 1998 and represents the largest parish church organ in Australasia. The work carried out was extensive, involving the complete reorganisation and expansion of the internal layout, with several new divisions, additional pipework and complete revoicing, new winding system, new serialdrive MIDI electrical and combination systems, made by Muldersoft of Auckland, and a new lowprofile transept console.

Ian Molyneux, Looking around Perth: a guide to the architecture of Perth and surrounding towns. East Fremantle: Wescolour Press, 1981, pp.xvii.

• Building dates supplied by Dominic Perissinotto

• The Basilica of St Patrick Fremantle (organ booklet issued by South Island Organ Company Ltd).

• The FreemanEdmonds Directory of British Organ Builders. Oxford: Positif Press, 2002, v.3., p.553.

Full details and images of the organ may be found at:

South Island Organ Company

St Patrick's Basilica, Fremantle