Introduction

This book has been published to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the foundation of the Organ Historical Trust of Australia in 1977. It provides a pictorial record of pipe organs in Australia that have been lost through various agencies.

Some have simply been removed and broken up, others have been destroyed by fire, and others have been rebuilt beyond visual or tonal recognition.

This book is not intended to provide a comprehensive account of such instruments, but rather a selective representation of those for which suitable images have survived. Insofar as individual organs can be accurately dated, the images are arranged in chronological order.

These have been sourced from public and private collections, and many are published here for the first time.