The Cathedral Church of Christ the King

From the Grafton Cathedral website http://www.graftoncathedral.org.au/:

History of the Organs

The first organ was installed in Christ Church Cathedral in 1884 at a cost of 450 pounds. It was a small instrument of 2 manuals and pedals built by George Fincham of Melbourne, a noted organ builder of the time and founder of a firm still building organs in Victoria.

Packed in five crates the organ was sent to Grafton by ship. The installation was carried out by the organist, Mr Mitchell, and in the Cathedral archives are charmingly pedantic letters from Mr Fincham instructing him exactly how he was to accomplish this task, even down to the fine details of removing the crates from ship to Cathedral.

The late 1950's found the organ in very poor condition, parts even tied up with string, and clearly inadequate for the size of the completed Cathedral. Under the guidance of Mr Ray Matchett, the Cathedral Organist, some additions and electrification of the action were carried out by Hr H J Jarrott of Brisbane and dedicated on September 3rd, 1962.

The organ has 3 manuals and pedals and 37 speaking stops with a full range of couplers allowing the divisions to be joined together for extra versatility. A feature is that all speaking stops are individual ranks - there are no "extensions" or "borrowing".

Rebuilding the console

(SOJ Autumn 2021) by Ian Brown:

The Cathedral Church of Christ the King, Grafton, to give it its full title, has been our workplace recently. The story of this organ begins in London where Norman & Beard Ltd of Norwich built a three- manual organ for the Royal College of Organists in 1903.