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While walking around I could hear pipe organ music! Eventually the source appeared The caption gives you some details. Now for a few photos of the organ, and its operator. Sadly, I didn't bring my other (video) camera with me; it would have recorded the music of this organ, as well as the action at the rear.

Car trailer with pipe organ and canopy The full organ - a 73 key extravaganza!

Organ pipes and horns detail of the organ The main guts of the organ part. There are 442 pipes, and a 24 note glockenspiel, which I am guessing are the horns among the pipes.

Smaller pipes with builder's name: The street organ was built in Belgium in 1992. See below for full details.

Rear of organ, with operator The worknig end. The white areas on the edges stire the music cards which control the mechanism to play tunes. The operator selects one and places it in the reader, which is what he appears to be doing in this photo.

Raised platform reading the music card as it traverses from one side to the other The music card reader. The stack on the left is the input, which is fed through the reader on top (where the gray tubes originate) and is pushed out to the right where it folds up.

Man holding paper sheet with horizontal slots to activate the mechanism One of the music cards for this machine. Those old enough to remember a pianola (or player piano) will recognise this as being quite similar.

Photographer in front of organ Something of a record - the photographer was subject twice on the one day!

Organ Story

Taken from the operator's brochure.
The music you are listening to is being performed by the concert street organ Australia Fair, the largest and finest outdoor automatic pipe organ ever to reach our shores. She is now the only organ of her type in Australia to travel like she does, covering around 30,000 kilometres each year giving hundreds of performances in cities, towns and small communities where people can experience the wonderful music we provide. Our travels to date have covered all states.

Australia Fair's roots lie in Europe where these large and beautiful instruments were developed in the 19th century. They are known as Dutch street organs because The Netherlands is where these instruments were most successful and they are still in use today. The historic street organ works Verbeeck Orgelfabriek survives to this day and Australia Fair, built by them in 1992, is a direct link with history.

Specifications

73 Key Verbeeck Concert Street Organ
Builder Verbeeck Orgelfabriek, Antwerp, Belgium
Date 1992
Dimensions 4m high x 6m wide x 2.5m deep
Weight 2.5 tonnes
Instrumentation 442 pipes, 24 note glockenspiel, snare drum, cymbal, wood block, bass drum
Ranks
Melody Violin, Bourdon Flute, Harmonic Flute, Undermaris, Trumpet, Mixture, Glockenspiel
Counter Melody Celeste, Cello, Bass Cello, Baritine
Accompaniment Bourdon Flute, Violin, Cello
Bass 16' Bass, 8' Bassm 8' Violone, 16' Trombone

There is no web site for this organ, however the operator can be reached at:-

Australia Fair
P.O. Box 1515
Glen Waverley, VIC 3150

Updated at 09:48 EST on Tue Jul 31, 2012
Copyright © 2011 - 2012, Lindsay Harris