The Puget Organ 

At the heart of our School is the exquisite Chapel, regarded by many as the finest work of the renowned architect John Horbury Hunt. Canadian-born Hunt was commissioned in 1883 by Mother Febronie Vercruysse to design the buildings for the newly founded Rose Bay Convent of the Sacred Heart. The buildings are regarded as “a supreme example of Hunt’s expertise in grouping different elements into a complex, yet never complicated, whole”1. The pièce de resistance is the early English Gothic Chapel, with its magnificent stained-glass windows and white marble altar, which was dedicated by Cardinal Moran on 21 November 1900. 

If the Chapel is the heart of the School, then its heartbeat is the Puget Organ, the only organ of its kind in Australia. Originally built in 1890 by the firm of Theodore Puget Pere et Fils of Toulouse for the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Bordeaux, the organ was sent to Sydney after anti-religious laws resulted in the closure of the Society’s convents in France. To avoid its confiscation by the French government, Mother General Mabel Digby sent the organ, along with the stalls, pulpit and confessional from the Senior Boarding School in Paris, to Rose Bay. Although it arrived in 1904, the organ remained in its crates until November 1905. The Convent House Journal of the time records “Funds are low. Our Mother General wishes us, however, to put up the organ at her own expense. We are beginning to unpack it.” 

The assembly of the organ was carried out by organ builder Charles Richardson, with some adjustments to the action and the mechanism required to fit the organ into the gallery space which had been provided for another organ originally intended for the space. Although the surrounding wood work was not completed until 1911, the organ was first played at evening Benediction on 25 February 1906. 

(photo of Sr Cec Amiet and Sr Margaret Lentaigne at the console of the Puget Organ c1954-55] 

Over the years, the organ underwent a number of repairs, before major renovations were carried out in 1960. The main change was the conversion of the action from mechanical to electro-pneumatic, in keeping with a trend of the time. New soundboards and console were also installed.  

Despite the work done to modernize the organ, inherent problems emerged and increasing deterioration outpaced repairs, raising serious concerns for the survival of the organ. Driven by the indominable Ann Henderson and the late Patricia Horsley (both past presidents of the Chapel Society) and fierce advocates for the Puget Organ’s restoration, and Pastor de Lasala, the entire organ was dismantled in January 2005 and all its original casework and pipes were shipped to France. Following restoration work in France by several French organ builders, the organ was returned to Sydney in January 2009. The restoration was completed in situ in 2011, ensuring that the unique French romantic voice of this cultural treasure was once again heard in our Chapel. 

(photo of Sr Cec Amiet and Sr Margaret Lentaigne at the console of the restored Puget Organ, in 2011)