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George Fincham Organ- St Bartholomew's Anglican Church

Location 290 Burnley Street,, BURNLEY VIC 3121 - Property No B6216 File Number B6216 Level Local

[1/1] B6216 Fincham Organ

Statement of Significance

What is significant? The pipe organ built in 1887 by George Fincham, of Richmond, for St Michael's Catholic Church, Wagga Wagga, NSW was the first pipe organ in the town and one of very few (possibly three) in the wider southern NSW region. It was moved in 1893 to the Chapel of St Peter, within the Church of England Grammar School, South Yarra; this was the first school chapel in Victoria and the organ was played from 1906 by Arthur E.H. Nickson, important Melbourne organist and teacher. The organ was replaced by a larger instrument in 1913 and moved to Burnley that year and placed in the present church building in 1926. This is a very small two-manual organ built by Fincham, with a high degree of originality, and with a very simple flat-fronted Gothic case.
How is it significant? The organ is significant for historic, aesthetic and technical reasons at a local level
Why is it significant? The pipe organ is significant for the following reasons:
. It is one of the smallest two-manual organs built by Fincham during the 1880s to survive largely intact;
. The casework is an unusual example from the period without Fincham's 'signature' projecting towers
. The tonal design of the organ influenced the later and important pipe organ at Melbourne Grammar School, where all of the stops are replicated within a larger instrument
Classified: 20/03/1991
Revised: 04/08/2003