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George Fincham Pipe Organ - All Saints Uniting Church

Location Forest Street,, BENDIGO VIC 3550 - Property No B7217 File Number B7217 Level Local

[1/2] B7217 George Fincham Pipe [2/2] B7217 George Fincham Pipe

Statement of Significance

What is significant? The surviving remnants of the pipe organ built in 1867 by George Fincham, of Richmond, for the Wesleyan (Methodist) Church, Forest Street, Bendigo, and later enlarged and placed in the present church in 1877
How is it significant? The organ is significant for historic and aesthetic reasons at a local level
Why is it significant? The pipe organ at Wesley Uniting Church, Bendigo is significant for the following reasons:
. It was one of the six earliest examples of George Fincham's Australian work;
. The provision of an exceptionally elaborate case thought to have been designed by W.C. Vahland, prominent Bendigo architect, whose firm extended the church in 1877-78 and a rare local example of an architect-designed organ case;
. It is the only example of George Fincham's work in Bendigo and was the first organ he built for a rural location in Victoria;
. It was the second pipe organ to be installed in a Bendigo church;
. It retains some of the earliest surviving Fincham pipework.
Extent: Includes the surviving remnants of the original organ of 1867 (eight ranks of pipework and the slider windchest) and the 1873 enlargement (the pipework, slider windchest and swell box) but excludes the current electric mechanisms, tonal additions made at various stages, and the 1953 detached console.
Classified: 02/02/2004