"About Us"

The restoration of the 1890 Puget ranks amongst the most important organ projects in this country. Now in France, it is undergoing the second phase of restoration with Provençal organ builder, Charles Henry, with the assistance and expertise of eminent French Consultant, Michel Colin.  It is undergoing its fourth rebuilding since its creation in Toulouse for the Sacré Coeur Convent in Bordeaux, undertaking its first long journey to Sydney in 1904, back to France in 2005, and final return to its Sydney home. Very probably it holds the record of the most travelled pipe organ in the world.

Rescued from an uncertain future when the Religious of The Society of the Sacred Heart sent it from Bordeaux to Sydney in 1904 after closure of their Convents, it has returned to France once again.
 
The organ will return to Sydney in December, 2008 and installation work will commence before Christmas and continue into the first months of 2009. Then will follow a series of gala concerts to celebrate its homecoming. This last incarnation of the Puget will see this important instrument not only returned to its original 1890 specification but also recreated purposely to fit the space of Horbury Hunt’s tribune in the beautiful Chapel.
 
The restoration of the organ is important because of its world cultural heritage. It is unique as the only French organ in Australia and thus capable of playing the enormous French repertoire in the manner for which French composers composed their pieces. This is what makes French compositions so different, and why only the French organs have the ability to capture that elusive and wonderful ‘sound’.
This is the only Puget organ in Australia, and one of very few Puget organs found outside France. The organ was built in Toulouse in 1890 by Eugène Puget, whose father, Thèodore Puget, founded the firm in 1834. It is believed to have been a gift to the Society of the Sacred Heart Convent in Bordeaux. Certainly it was custom made for their Chapel, having the carved twin hearts at the apex of the façade, representing the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, the symbol of The Society of the Sacred Heart.