Pipe Organs in WA
 
 
 
 
 

Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle
The pipe organs of Western Australia




Fremantle Maritime Museum

Fremantle Maritime Museum
Doug with the restored barrel organ

Property
Name of institution   Western Australian Maritime Museum
Type of institution0   Museum
Street Address   Cliff Street
City   Fremantle
State   Western Australia
Postcode   6160
Country   Australia
Name of building   Western Australian Maritime Museum
Name of room   The Shipwreck Gallery
Dates of the building  
Register of Heritage Places   Registered 22 Jun 2001
Heritage Place number   00857
Architect  
Builder  

Special architectural features and fittings   The former Commissariat Buildings, comprising the ‘A’ Store (1852), the ‘B’ Store (1860-61), the ‘Drum’ Store (1895-96) the ‘New Store’ (1898), and the Administration Building (1852; c.1896), which are of limestone construction in the Victorian Georgian and the Victorian Regency styles, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:

  • the place is one of the first buildings constructed by the convicts after their arrival in 1850, under the direction of Captain Henderson, Royal Engineer and Comptroller General of Convicts, and James Manning, Clerk of Works;

  • the place has aesthetic value as a well designed and well built example of a substantial utilitarian building in the Victorian Georgian and the Victorian Regency style;

  • together with the Round House, the former Store on Bathers Beach, and the former Court House building on Marine Terrace, the place forms a precinct of exceptional significance in this area of the West End of Fremantle, and defines the south west boundary of the West End of Fremantle;

  • the place is characteristic of the substantial limestone buildings constructed during the convict period in Fremantle, and represents the significance of this role in the establishment of the infrastructure of the State of Western Australia;

  • since 1979, the place has been associated with the Maritime Museum of Western Australia, a pioneering institution in the field of maritime research, and is significant for its educational role in relating the maritime history of Western Australia; and,

  • from 1852 up to the late 1970s, the place has been associated with a number of government agencies, including government bonds and stores, and the Customs office.


  • Other location information   The Maritime Museum in Cliff Street, Fremantle, has been renamed the Western Australian Maritime Museum Shipwreck Galleries.

    The Shipwreck Galleries are recognised as the foremost maritime archaeology museum in the southern hemisphere.

    The displays in the restored convict-built Commissariat building feature early exploration and shipwrecks along the treacherous coastline as early as the 17th Century, including original timbers from the Dutch VOC ship the Batavia, wrecked in 1629.

    Name of contact  
    Mailing Address  
    Telephone   08 9431 8444
    Email  
    Other contact information   Western Australian Maritime Museum

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    Previous organ(s)
    Date of previous organ   None
    Detail of previous organ  
    Dates when key work has been undertaken  
    Dates of any moves that have taken place  
    Variations from original design of organ  
    Information on previous organ  
    Information about comparable instruments to previous organ  
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    Present organ
    Type of installation  

    Case description  

    Placement in room  

    Builder's name   Wurlitzer Company, North Tonawanda, N.Y., U.S.A

    Opus number  

    Date of completion/installation   1892

    Construction materials  

    Number of manuals  

    Key compasses  

    Number of keys  

    Key material  

    Pedal compass  

    Number of pedals  

    Pedalboard type  

    Pedalboard material  

    Type of chests  

    Type of key action  

    Type of stop action  

    Couplers  

    Tremulants  

    Accessories   

    Console type  

    Stop label material  

    Placement  

    General design  

    Playing aids  

    Divisions  

    Wind pressures  

    Stop list  
    GREAT
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    Total number of stops  

    Total number of ranks   4 ranks, operable by barrels.

    Total number of pipes  

    Dates when key work has been undertaken on current organ  

    Dates of any moves that have taken place to current organ   Used on a merry-go-round on the Fremantle foreshore operated by Percy Wright.
    Presented to Museum by D.G. Miller

    Rebuilt and relocated to Western Australian Museum Boola Bardip, Perth, c2020.

    Information on current organ   The Barrel Organ

    In 1971 a barrel organ became another of my ventures into the organ world. I believe the instrument was a German Wurlitzer type. The organ was given to me by an elderly gentleman; Mr Percy Wright who lived in Palmyra. Percy had been a fairground operator at Point Walter and South Beach sometime in the 1920's and 1930's. His expertise was making the wooden horses for his merry-go-round. A barrel organ had been acquired from Sydney, near Manly pier. As merry-go-rounds are required to make very loud music to attract potential customers, Percy had the organ installed on the ground in the centre of the revolving merry-go-round with a supply of air generated from the same engine that powered the carousel. During the war years the organ was removed but the merry-go-round continued delighting patrons. I believe it is the same merry-go-round in use today at the Perth Zoo.

    Percy had stored the barrel organ at his home for a few years, on wooden blocks resting on a sand floor in his shed - well covered from the elements. White ants like dark places , peace and quiet and love pine-like material. After removing the heavy tarpaulin we discovered their "dining room".

    The barrel organ was moved to my workshop and thinking "I knew it all", I decided to replace all the white ant eatings while learning to restore the organ to a working order. I was able to copy much of the pipework and tune the pipes against the family piano; my home was adjacent to the garage. After many months of repair and replacing, we were able to get a reasonable tune. I felt I had given the old instrument a new lease of life. We had two barrels which, thankfully, missed the ant invasion - all the brass pinnings were intact and each barrel had several tunes (in pinned form) written on each barrel.

    After many hours of tinkering, turning the "handle" which came with the organ case, we were able to recognise the tunes which had been pinned on the remaining two barrels- "Sousa marching tunes, "Daisy Bell" and other tunes of the day. The tracker mechanism is activated by the revolving pinned barrel which in turn, opens and closes the pallets in the wind chest, as it works in conventional pipe organs. Such excitement! With a bit of winding and gentle persuasion, it worked! The organ is not played with a conventional keyboard or pedal, but has a drum constructed in wood approximately 900mm in length and 250 mm in diameter with a metal core. It revolves at a slow pace and activates a pair of bellows underneath the mechanism. The "music" is written in thousands of brass pins driven in line around the wooden pine drum or barrel. The tracker travels over the brass pins and trips the start and stop of a note. Many pins make a staccato note, and a long continuous strip around the barrel plays a sustained note, the tracker reproduces whatever is pinned in line around the barrel.

    I realised I was dealing with something rather special, "old" "unique"; the only one of its kind in WA. I decided it must be available for the public to see, so I gave it to the Fremantle Museum, where it was on display for a period of time. Unfortunately after having been cranked anti clockwise by over-enthusiastic museum patrons, a pinned barrel was seriously damaged, so the organ went to museum storage.

    After the initial rescue from the kindling bucket, the organ is now being exhibited in the Perth Museum, behind glass for all to see! The outer casework has been repaired but is as close to the original as given to me. In its heyday it had been polished like an upright piano, but somewhere during its life had been painted a muddy cream and some of the panels had been clothed.

    Doug Miller, September 2021

    Comparable instruments to current organ  

    Assessment of organ and current status   No longer at this location

    Other organs by this builder  

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    Document control Original entries J R Elms, OAM, Gazetteer of Western Australian Pipe Organs, 1971, 1999, 2003 and 2004.
    This entry D B Duncan 23 January 2009.
    Restoration information and photographs of the organ by Doug Miller, September 2021.