Organ

The first musical instrument used at St Francis' was in the late 1840s and was a seraphine. This was then replaced in November 1853 by a pipe organ built by Henry Bevington of London. The organ was built in 1851 and purchased by Bishop Goold and arrived in July 1853. The organ contained a Great organ with 16 stops, a Swell organ with 18 stops, and a Pedal organ with 2 stops.  A Choir organ of 8 stops was added to the instrument by George Fincham, who had served his apprenticeship under Henry Bevington.

A stop was also added to the Great organ and the keyboards were moved toward the front of the gallery. After these renovations the organ reopened April 5th 1869 and was operated by organist G. R. G. Pringle who had demanded the changes and alterations.

The organ however, had further renovations made in 1872 by the builder of the Melbourne Town Hall organ, Robert McKenzie. The new organist, Signor Giorze had demanded the organ console be moved back to its original position and another 8 stops be added. Thus the organ reopened December 1873.

However, due to Mr McKenzie's poor workmanship, Mr Fincham had to conduct many important renovations and corrections in 1875. He also conducted further work on the instrument in 1886 and 1889. Although in 1898, because of the effects of the Depression, St Francis' employed the services of a less expensive organ mechanic. Yet once again, in 1899, Mr Fincham had to repair the faulty workmanship and later that year he fully restored the organ.

In 1910, the organ incurred large alterations and was almost completely rebuilt. The console was moved forward once again and new soundboards were installed and the tracker action was replaced by tubular-pneumatic action. In 1965 the organ was altered yet again by Fincham and Sons. It was enlarged and the tubular-pneumatic action was updated with electro-pneumatic action. At this time the organ was also reinstalled in the gallery to make room for the Choir. In 1969, a second console was installed at the front of the Church on the left-hand side of the sanctuary. The organ became one of the largest church instruments in Melbourne.

Due to the second Vatican Council's rethinking of liturgical space and the role of the organ, the Blessed Sacrament Congregation began to discuss the possibility of moving the aged and large organ from the rear gallery to the front of the Church, possibly relocating it to one of the transepts. This served the purpose of not only gratifying the thoughts expressed by the Vatican Council, but it also satisfied the needs of the Choir. The Choir had expressed their discomfort of singing from the transept while the organ was situated in the west gallery.

However considering the bulk of the organ as well as the constraints of space in the transept, it was thus decided a new organ be built. Consequently the old organ was removed from St Francis' and relocated to St Peter's Church, Toorak. The new organ was in place in the eastern transept and opened in 1973. David Fincham of George Fincham & Sons built it. The organ was fully fashioned in remarkable craftsmanship and modern innovations, whilst adopting an overall German Baroque style.

Unfortunately, the organ could not match the repertoire the Choir adopted from 1978 onwards and it's position in the transept limited it's ability to fill the Church and carry down the length of the nave. The organ thus could not fulfil its purpose or support the choir to its full potential.

In 1995, plans for the renovations of St Francis' raised the question of a new organ. In 1994, the Blessed Sacrament Congregation embarked on a program of conservation works in conjunction with the National Trust of Victoria. To decide the fate of the organ in relation to the restorations, an Organ Advisory Committee was formed in October 1994 with the Director of Music, Roger Heagney, as the chairman. However, the acquisition of a new organ was met with accommodating the cost for the new instrument.

After concluding that the current organ was not sufficient enough, the Organ Advisory Committee decided that a new organ was the only appropriate solution. Consequently, the Congregation attempted to combat the cost for the new organ with the funds from the public appeal, which was launched to assist the financing of the restorations.

In early 1995, it was beginning to look like the public appeal would not be able to account for the full cost of the organ, so further consultations were set up between the Congregation and interested parties. Amidst these consultations, the Congregation had to go through Heritage Victoria to have their plans approved. Heritage Victoria reviewed the case and was relatively pleased with the proposed design of the organ, but made a few adjustments that sustained their guidelines but without having an adverse effect on the Congregations plans. In September 1996, the trustees agreed to proceed with the new organ.

The new organ was to be multi-sited, incorporating a choir organ divided on either side of the sanctuary and a large gallery organ to promote congregational singing. All of these divisions were to be playable from one console, which was to be placed in the eastern transept.
              
In 1998, the reformed Organ Advisory Committee accepted the proposal by Casavant for the construction of the new organ and the contract was signed in May 1999. The organ arrived in four 20-foot containers on August 28 2000, and it took four weeks to install.