BIGGS PIPE ORGAN

The whole of the Biggs Pipe Organ currently located at the St Luke's Lutheran Church at 31-33 Bunbury Street, Cavendish including the detached windchest. 

The Biggs Pipe Organ is of historic significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register: 

Criterion A Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria's cultural history. 

Criterion B Possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Victoria's cultural history. 

Criterion D Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects. 

The Biggs Pipe is significant at the State level for the following reasons: 

The Biggs Pipe Organ is historically significant for its use in the production of church music from 1858. The organ was constructed by organ builder Jesse Biggs who trained in the UK. Contemporary newspapers document it first being used to make music in Victorian churches from 1858 when it was installed in the United Methodist Free Church in Collingwood. Pipe organs were used both during church services and for concerts not related to worship. Up until the mid-1860s almost all pipe organs used in Victoria were imported. After this the manufacture of pipe organs became an important industry in nineteenth century Victoria. The 1858 Biggs Pipe Organ is one of the first pipe organs to be made in Victoria and its sound demonstrates the musical tastes of the time. [Criterion A] 

The Biggs Pipe Organ was made in 1858 and is historically significant as one of very few surviving organs made in Victoria in the 1850s and 60s that are undamaged, not substantially altered and still in original condition. It is rare in Victoria as a surviving example of an early pipe organ made in Victoria that is still in largely original condition. [Criterion B] 

The Biggs Pipe Organ is historically significant as a notable example of the smaller, less elaborate pipe organs used in Victoria in the 1850s and 1860s. It has not been altered and so the characteristics of early pipe organs are evident in the case, internal equipment and sound of the organ. [Criterion D]