We have a splendid pipe organ.

It has 5 keyboards (4 for the hands and 1 for the feet), 53 stops and 3,425 pipes. The tallest pipe is 10 metres tall and the smallest is merely 2-3 cms tall and has the diameter of a pencil. In 2017 the organ was shipped back to England to the workshop of Harrison and Harrison and went through a comprehensive overhaul and renovation at an approximate cost of A$1.5 million.

The organ was rededicated on Sunday 2nd December 2018.

While the romantic style and character of the 1929 instrument has been preciously safeguarded, it has been equipped with modern playing aids to allow the Cathedral musicians to have an instrument fit for today’s liturgical requirements, as well as for concerts that are held regularly here. The instrument is one of the grandest and substantially unaltered organs in Australia, making it one of significant importance.

The first part of the case work was donated in 1963 by its designer, Walter Bagot, and was constructed by A.S. Bissland. It bears the arms of “Bagot of Blythefield,’ from which illustrious family the late Walter Bagot was descended. The case work was completed as a part of the major renovation of the organ in 2017.

Our Director of Music and our Cathedral Organist display the many facets, sounds and tones of the organ as they play for our services and in their postludes at the end of services. The organist sits on an organ stool that is behind the curtain above the choir stalls on the pulpit side. That is where the keyboards are located. The organist watches the choir conductor via a CCTV camera and monitor. Perhaps you can see the large mirror used by the organist to see what is happening in the body or nave of the cathedral where the congregation sits.

There are a number of young people who are learning to play the organ, and the cathedral also has a scheme for appointing and training an organ scholar, thus assuring the ongoing use of this magnificent instrument.