Pella’s pipes

A 140-year-old organ is entertaining visitors in a tiny limestone church hidden in the Mallee.

Story John Dunn  Photos Les Graetz

Deep in the Victorian Mallee, where the seemingly unending wheatfields begin to give way to the Big Desert Wilderness Park and the Wyperfeld National Park, the prevailing sounds are often the hubbub of harvesters and the rough rumble of tractors. Sometimes, however, tones of an entirely different kind break in – smooth and soothing notes that are both classical and contrasting. Astonishingly, they are excerpts from Bach’s Fugue in F Major, Handel’s Coronation Anthem or even Samuel Wesley’s Old English Melody.

The source is a 498-pipe organ standing proudly in a tiny, 115-year-old limestone church tucked away with a former manse and school in a spindly patch of Mallee scrub. The organ towers towards the ceiling at the back of the church and, despite its 140 years, retains its ornately decorated casework, finely stencilled pipes, crafted console and cut-crystal knobs. Its colours are still vibrant and its tone as perfect as ever.

Built by 19th-century craftsman Alfred Fuller for the Congregational Church in South Melbourne, it was bought in 1970 by the people of Pella for the Lutheran church of St John, to replace its ageing organ. Quite unceremoniously, it was cut into pieces and loaded onto 3 trucks for the 421km journey to its new home

“After being reassembled and tuned, it was as good as new,” says local organist Mal Drendel.