Interior of Forest Park Methodist Church 1934
The organ was situated behind the grille above the pulpit
Some of the stained glass windows which were taken out on closure of the church.
The windows are now in Mt Lawley Uniting Church
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Name of institution | Forrest Park Methodist Church | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Type of institution0 | Church | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Street Address | 37 Walcott Street | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
City | Mount Lawley | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
State | Western Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Postcode | 6050 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name of building | Forrest Park Methodist Church | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name of room | Church sanctuary | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dates of the building | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Register of Heritage Places | Adopted 13 Nov 1995 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Heritage Place number | 02427 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architect | Powell, Cameron and Chisholm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Builder | John Hawkins & Sons |
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Special architectural features and fittings |
The former Methodist Church, is a fine and notable example of Interwar Gothic architecture that is a landmark
on Walcott Street. It was a grand and confident gesture in the future at the time of its construction during
the Depression. The imposing gable fronted brick structure with stone quoins and tracery was constructed with Gothic design elements including arched windows and doors, and buttresses at the sides. The windows feature fine stone tracery and stained glass lead lighting. The great stepped gabled north wall features tripartite doors and windows, divided by mullions that rise to Gothic finials. A louvred decorative ventilator, at the centre of the gable, surmounts the composition. Vestries and meeting rooms are formed into a two storey wing at the rear of the Church, which gives the appearance of a transept. The church is grander than a comparable Interwar Methodist Church by the same architects in Shenton Park, now St. Matthew's Anglican Church, at the corner of Onslow and Derby Roads. In a prominent location on the side of the hill overlooking a park, it is set back from the street behind a low brick wall. |
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Other location information |
Construction costs were £2,483. The church, which measured 38 ft x 48 ft, was designed to seat 250 people,
with provision for a choir, two vestries and an organ loft. Forrest Park Methodist Church was officially
opened on 1 July 1933 by Mrs R. Hocking. Following the amalgamation of the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches to form the Uniting Church in 1977, the new body had an oversupply of churches. Surplus buildings in the Mount Lawley Parish were disposed of, among them the Forrest Park Methodist Church which was deconsecrated, prior to its conversion for use as a restaurant in 1982. |
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Date of previous organ | None | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Variations from original design of organ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Present organ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Type of installation | Elevated organ chamber |
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Case description | Grill facing in to the sanctuary of the Church and a simple false dummy display facing
into the church - these pipes were made of galvanised iron down pipes with a simple stencilled pattern. |
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Placement in room | South-West front corner of the church |
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Builder's name | Gunstar Organ Works, Adelaide |
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Opus number | |
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Date of completion/installation | 1940 Contract signed 10th July 1939 |
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Construction materials | |
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Number of manuals | Two (2) |
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Key compasses | |
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Number of keys | |
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Key material | |
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Pedal compass | |
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Number of pedals | |
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Pedalboard type | |
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Pedalboard material | |
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Type of chests | |
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Type of key action | Electro-pneumatic |
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Type of stop action | Electro-pneumatic |
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Couplers |
Swell - Great Swell - Pedal Great - Pedal |
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Tremulants | |
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Accessories | |
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Console type | |
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Stop label material | |
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Placement | |
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General design | |
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Playing aids | |
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Divisions | Great, Swell, Pedal |
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Wind pressures | 4.25" |
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Stop list |
This stoplist is made up from the recollection of JR (Bob) Elms and may not be
correctly named and may be incomplete. The organ was changed considerably in the transition to the new premises
at Maylands and many of the old specifcations were no longer decipherable:
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Total number of stops | 16 |
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Total number of ranks | 5 |
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Total number of pipes | |
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Dates when key work has been undertaken on current organ | |
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Dates of any moves that have taken place to current organ | Rebuilt in 1960 by Paul F Hufner with a Cornopean installed
from Davey Street Congregational Church, Hobart,
for use as a Trumpet until it was later replaced with a new Trumpet rank. The organ was removed, rebuilt, enlarged and installed at Maylands Uniting Church in 1985 by Paul F. Hufner. |
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Information on current organ |
This was the only organ built in Western Australia by Gunstar
Organ Works, Adelaide. Gunstars were formed in 1935 and their
first new organ was the Christadelphian Church in Adelaide, the
contract states it was to be completed by 16th March 1936. It appears Dodd amalgamated with Gunstar Organ
Works in June 1944 and the company then became J.E. Dodd & Sons Gunstar Organ Works, Adelaide. Paul Hufner signed a maintenance agreement with Gunstar in February 1940 and maintained the organ until the 1990's, over 50 years. The action was electro-pneumatic in stop and key action with the primary action puffers which completed the electric circuit to the pipe magnets. The stop action also worked with switches activated by pneumatic puffers (Wurlitzer style). There were 5 ranks of pipes, extended. The Pedal Subbass 16' gave a fairly solid sound, and there was also a Pedal Bourdon 16' borrowed from the Swell. The Subbass did everything required of it but the swell stop which was of quite small scale was inaudible from the body of the church and hence the bottom 12 notes were taken out to allow for the addition of the bottom 12 notes for the trumpet. Bob Elms writes:
In 1941 I was a student of ES Craft at Wesley Church at the time and went
to a service to hear the organ played by Bill Arnott the organist. It had
been installed in 1940 and ES Craft played the opening recital. It all
sounded very orchestral in tone to me, only a small 2' as upperwork and
that on the swell, and the ersatz reed on the swell a stringy Labial Oboe,
a larger version of the Salicional which only went to tenor C.. Olwyn Mason
became organist after Bill Arnott died suddenly. In 1954 she married Dr.
John Francis who lives in Albany now [2010], retired of course, and I took over
from her as organist. As the elderly choir master wanted to retire they
appointed me as organist/choirmaster, a post I held for 16 years. I was not completely happy with the organ as far as sound was concerned. I thought the organ needed a bit more top; it depended on a great super coupler to provide that and it was not very successful. I proposed that the Open diapason/Octave diapason rank be extended to 2'. This was done with the addition being gifted to the church by the Anderson family. John Larner's mother was an Anderson and a lady in the choir Hetty Cooves, his aunt, was also, and so the job was done. Paul Hufner did the job. Then a second-hand Wm HIll trumpet of about 1890 became available through Paul Hufner. It came from Davey Street Congregational Church, a church in Tasmania whose organ Paul had rebuilt. Paul suggested we try it in the footholes of the Labial Oboe to see how it went. The result was dramatic and the church bought a new Trumpet rank from Rogers in the UK. It still only went to tenor C however. In the swell box was a 16 foot bourdon of very small scale which actually was inaudible from the nave of the church. It was a downward extension to the Lieblich gedecht. Paul suggested we buy the twelve 8 foot pipes for the bass of the trumpet and substitute them for the bottom octave of the swell bourdon. That would only need some wiring. This was done and the reed rank was complete. Gunns only had the one job in this state before they amalgamated with JE Dodd under the name JE Dodd and Sons Gunstar Organ Works. Incidentally the 12 swell bourdon pipes were gifted to Morley Methodist Church to supply a pedal 16' for the organ Larner built there. The Bourdon now is in the organ at private residence Kingsley Jones, Kardinya. The Gunns, Steve and Gordon I met a few times. Their main man was Lyall von Einem who carried out much of their work in WA. He carried off my assistant organist, Joan Plank, in matrimony and took her back to SA. Frank Dawson became my assistant after that and carried on as organist/choirmaster after I left for Albany in 1971. I was organist/choirmaster at Forrest Park for 16 years. There were for some years two choirs, a large and strong choir in the morning, and one of only slightly lesser size and skill for the evening. How times have changed. The Forrrest Park organ itself was in a purpose built chamber (Wurlitzer style) about 12 feet above the floor of the minister's vestry (to left of the choir and console). There was no screen across the opening - just a large fabric curtain obviously designed to stop the setting sun shining through the rear stained glass windows and the organ chamber openings onto the pipe work. Unfortunately it also cut back the sound and the high frequencies to a noticeable degree and on Sunday mornings I climbed the ladder and pulled the curtain back to let more sound out. I did discuss with Paul Hufner the possibility of replacing the curtain with an extruded aluminium screen but the western sun posed a problem and we did not do anything about it. Access to the loft was by a steep ladder from the floor of the minister's vestry. The blower was in a cellar underneath the choir and some distance from the console. The blower's intake was just above a lush green lawn, which did nothing for the organ's tuning on a hot summer's morning. The console was centrally situated in front of the choir, with the organist's back to the congregation. and facing the choir much as in Trinity but elevated so that the organist was well in view theatre organ style... The console was on rollers. If more space was required for the choir (e.g. Sunday School Anniversaries) a rail was removed and the organ console wheeled out as far as the communion rail. It was not moved very often but even I could roll it out without assistance.There was a long cable under the floor of the choir. The 2' extension to the Open Diapason would have been around 1957 to 1960. I have no record of the actual date but I got it done as soon as I could. The 1862 Wm Hill Trumpet on the swell was definitely tried out in 1961 and then replaced almost immediately by the new rank mentioned earlier. The 1862 rank came from Davey Street Congregational Church Hobart, now closed, that organ being moved to the Hutchens School Sandy Bay where it is still in use. Paul had the Hill Trumpet refurbished and used in the Great organ of St John's Lutheran Church, Aberdeen Street, Perth. Not many of his organs had trumpets. That is how the Gunstar organ at Mt Lawley was when I left in 1971. The organists were Frank Dawson, a Dutchman named Hank Vonk and for a time Ron Dickson a distant cousin of mine. Not the Dr Ron Dickinson from the Christian Science Church. |
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Comparable instruments to current organ | |
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Assessment of organ and current status | No longer in this location |
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Other organs by this builder | There are no other organs by Gunstar Organ Works in Western Asutralia. There are several organs by J E Dodd in Western Australia. Please refer to Western Australian Organs Builders Index |
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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 26 January 2009. Additional information from Bob Elms 14 February 2009. Photographs of the church from Picassos. Historical photo of church interior sources by Andrew Gardner. Additional information from George Stephens, Bob Elms and Patrick Elms 20 July 2010. Information from Heritage Council of Western Australia Updated with new photographs of windows by Bruce Duncan 13 August 2018. |