Archive property 2010

Select a heritage property for further information.

• Scone Post Office
• Hamilton Post Office
• Traralgon Post Office
• Queenstown Post Office
• Muswellbrook Post Office
• Maitland Post Office
• Tamworth Post Office

Scone Post Office

Scone is a town located in the Hunter Valley region 270 kilometres north of Sydney.

A telegraph office was established at Scone in 1877 and in 1879 the current building was constructed and included a post and telegraph office with associated quarters. The site is on the south west corner of the town's major intersection, Liverpool and Kelly Streets. The building had its main entrance to the north on Liverpool Street, with the quarters originally entered from the east from Kelly Street. Structural and cosmetic changes to the building were undertaken in 1908 and in 1914. This included small additions being made to the Liverpool Street frontage. In the 1960s a further single-storey addition provided a post office box lobby and additional offices along the Liverpool Street frontage.

The original 1870s posted verandah to Liverpool Street has been removed to make way for the Federation era addition. This addition includes recessed panels of rough cast stucco to the brickwork and is framed with a brick coping. The main entrance bay is set slightly forward of the flanking bays. The entry door has a fanlight and fixed sidelights. A subsequent single storey addition to Liverpool Street adjoins the main entrance and is set back from the main building line further emphasising the entrance bay. Its design is sympathetic to the Federation era additions. It has a three-bay casement window and a hipped, corrugated steel roof. It contains a locker room, lunch room, toilet, retail store and a small sorting room.

Stylistically and architecturally, Scone Post Office is a hybrid comprising of a central Victorian building with significant Federation additions.

Hamilton Post Office

The first postal service in Hamilton, Western Victoria was established in 1844, with the first formal post office constructed in 1861. This timber structure was replaced in 1864 by a two-storey bluestone building, which fell quickly into disrepair. By 1875 the Department of Public Works had prepared plans for a new building which was to house a lands office and treasury as well as the post and telegraph offices.

Construction of the new building was finished in 1876, and the post office was fully operational in 1878. A clock tower was added in 1890, with other minor alterations taking place during the first half of the twentieth century.

Hamilton Post Office is located at the southern edge of the main shopping precinct in Gray Street, the principal commercial street. The original building was constructed to the eastern (street) boundary of the site. It includes a rear yard that is largely covered by freestanding and interconnected sheds and amenities blocks.

The original side driveway along the southern side of the site from Gray Street includes a loading ramp and covered dock area; rear access is now via the adjoining site to the south which is also used for truck turning and staff car parking. The rear of the original site contains an automatic exchange building dating from the 1960s which has since been subdivided.

The central four-stage tower has clock faces surmounted by pediments with a small mansard roof behind. The tower has coffered corner piers and the clock panels are topped by pediments to all sides surmounted by ball urn finials.

Below the clock, the lower tower face is bracketed by two diagonal consoles and includes a paired window with round arches and accentuated voussoirs to Gray Street. The upper tower is slightly recessed behind the first floor façade and linked to a widening pattern comprised of four central arched windows on the first floor and a more widely spaced set of entrance arches on the ground floor.

Approximately 300km from Melbourne, Hamilton lies in Western Victoria at the intersection of the Glenelg Highway and the Henty Highway.

Traralgon Post Office

Traralgon is a major regional city located in Latrobe Valley in the Gippsland region of eastern Victoria and has a population of around 29,000.

Traralgon Post Office was constructed in 1886 and has been of considerable historical importance to Traralgon as a combined court house, post office and sub-treasury complex. The scale and quality of the post office and court house complex, with its inherent landmark qualities and key position, emphasises the significant role of Traralgon as the communications and administrative centre of the region during the 1880s. Postal services commenced operations in the new building in May 1887. In 1892 the clock tower was installed by the local Progress Association and the telephone exchange was installed in 1920.

The post office building is situated in Franklin Street diagonally opposite the Shire and city offices, fronting a roadside park to the immediate north. The shape of the building envelope was originally rectangular and is now essentially L-shaped which reflects the subdivision of the post office and courthouse components. Living quarters for the post master were above the post office and folding stairs in the ante-room provided access to the platform surrounding the clock tower.

The central mass of the building is symmetrical on three street sides and immediately behind this are the mansarded clock tower and a platform roof which is framed with a cast iron balustrade. The clock tower is clad with pressed metal sheet, which distinguishes it from the rest of the building. The tower has angled corner buttresses and the clock faces are placed as dormers directly in front of the mansard. Both these elements heighten the mansard's baroque influence. In addition, each clock face has a small pyramidal finial. The roof is clad in slate tile with galvanised iron ridge capping and supported by a weighty bracketed timber cornice above tuck-pointed salmon-coloured face brick walls.

Queenstown Post Office

Queenstown is a large mining settlement located about 250km northwest of Hobart with a population of 5,119. It has operated continuously for around 120 years.

Charles Gould first explored the area in the 1860s but the remoteness and rugged terrain delayed settlement until the discovery of gold at Queen River in 1881. An influx of prospectors and miners followed, many travelling down the west coast to the port of Strahan, then walking inland to the diggings. Two years later three miners discovered the rocky outcrop known as Iron Blow and by 1888 the Mount Lyell Gold Mining Company was formed. The establishment of rail services in 1897 accelerated the town's growth and by 1899 Queenstown had 1300 dwellings and a population of 5,000.

The Queenstown Post Office is a substantial stuccoed two storey brick masonry building located on the corner of Orr and Sticht Streets and has continuously operated as a post office since its construction in 1902. Charles W Leeming was the first postmaster and the building was designed by the Tasmanian Government Public Works Office prior to the Commonwealth taking over this responsibility.

The building demonstrates the importance of communication facilities for this isolated area and was also important for demonstrating, stylistically, the public face of government at the end of the 19th century. It is notable for its substantial masonry form and classical features including pedimented bays, pilasters, a colonnaded base and clock tower. The clock and chimes were not installed until 1909. While it has undergone some modernisation the building interior is substantially intact.

The post office building is one of a small group of government service buildings on the west coast. It was constructed on the crest of the boom years in Queenstown which followed the destruction of the original Penghana village by fire, the arrival of the Mt Lyell railway in 1896 and the subsequent rapid filling-in of the Queenstown town centre between the mid 1890s and the early 1900s.

Muswellbrook Post Office, NSW

Muswellbrook is located in the Upper Hunter Valley region about 243 kilometres north of Sydney. Chief Constable John Howe was the first European to discover the area in 1819. It was declared a township in 1833 and according to the 2006 census has a population of about 10,700.

The Muswellbrook Post Office was erected in two stages. The first section (to the rear of the site) was constructed as a post or telegraph office in 1861 by architect Alexander Dawson. The second portion of the building was designed by colonial architect, James Barnet, and erected in 1885. By 1878, the building had both a post and a telegraph office.

After the present post office was completed in 1861, a telegraph office continued to operate in the building. In the 1880s, upstairs quarters were added.

Muswellbrook Post Office is a rare example of two postal buildings of different generations and styles on one site, both more than a century old and designed and built for the same purpose.

The building is largely intact even though renovations and additions have had an impact. It is still legible, however, as a Victorian-era civic building with principle post office components.

The building's distinctive domestic character is unusual and the timber verandah is a rare surviving example from the late Victorian period.

Recently, Corporate Real Estate carefully refurbished the exterior of the Post Office while retaining the heritage colour scheme.

Maitland Post Office, NSW

Maitland is a city in the Lower Hunter Valley, situated on the Hunter River approximately 166km north of Sydney and 35km north-west of Newcastle. It was an early settlement which grew to be a major centre in the region, for a time eclipsing even Newcastle. It became one of the largest settlements in NSW during the middle of the nineteenth century. The post office is one of many grand and important commercial, civic and ecclesiastical buildings in the town which reflect this prosperous era.

The Maitland Post Office was constructed in 1881 to plans drawn up by the Colonial Architects office under James Barnet. The building replaced the original post and telegraph office which was located opposite the new post office, later the Water Board building. The property adjacent to the current post office was later purchased for use as mail room and postal boxes building, on which the current Modern style building was constructed in the late 1940s. The scale of the latter reflects the ongoing importance of the post office in a regional context.

The High Street frontage of the Maitland Post Office faces north-east across the Hunter River toward the suburb of Lorn. The post office is sited at the corner of High and Bourke Streets, with the High Street frontage curved. The post office responds to this curved land holding cleverly with a faceted loggia and balcony on its north side that swings into a right angle toward the corner tower. The building line is stepped, and the balcony curves to suit the property boundary.

Tamworth Post Office

Tamworth is a city with an urban population of over 42,000 people in the New England region of New South Wales straddling the Peel River.

The Tamworth telegraph office was constructed by WC Cairns in 1866, following the extension of the telegraph line to the town. A small room within this building was set aside for a temporary post office, which was subsequently extended in 1881. Before the extension had been completed, the residents of Tamworth presented a petition at a public meeting, calling for the erection of a new post and telegraph office. Plans were commenced for a new office in 1882 and the tender was awarded to J Conlon in November 1883 for the sum of ₤4,845. However, after the completion of final plans in 1884 and the purchase of a further two allotments to accommodate the size of the building, the contract for construction went to WC Cains for ₤6,859.

The foundation stone was laid by the Hon J Norton, Postmaster General, on 23 January 1886 and the building was occupied on 31 May 1886. The clock was installed later in the year. A branch of the Government Savings Bank was opened in the post office in 1871, and the telephone exchange opened in 1902 with 80 subscribers.

Architecturally, the building is a fine example of NSW Colonial Architect, James Barnet's work, and a building that provides exceptional streetscape value. It dates from the high tide of the architect's post offices and is an accomplished and inventive design, particularly in its clock tower and in its French door fenestration. It has architectural balance and proportion to the elements that make up its façade. The two level loggias to Fitzroy Street, Peel Street and the side return, and the five storied central clock tower, are detailed to produce a quasi-Tuscan or informal Italianate appearance. The post office also demonstrates Barnet's capacity to range over a number of related Italianate forms, while the close visual integration of his corner towers remains a distinctive element. The original rare Victorian illuminated clock, still in working order, with its four synchronised clock faces and bell ringing mechanism above, is a highly valued part of Tamworth business district.