Heritage buildings

Australia Post currently owns approximately 500 properties and leases an additional 780 heritage properties. These buildings include a rich and diverse range of properties dispersed throughout Australia and comprise historic buildings from the colonial era through post-Federation to more recent (post-World War II) structures. These buildings are used for the delivery of various postal and related services, including administrative and retail purposes.

Australia Post also owns properties that are leased for other, non-postal related purposes. The properties include grand and imposing public buildings, such as the general post offices (GPOs) in most of the state and territory capital cities. Also included are prominent nineteenth-century buildings in the main streets of Australian regional centres, many of which have conspicuous clock towers. More modest early twentieth-century postal buildings are also included in the heritage portfolio as they are distinctive within their streetscapes and urban contexts.

All of these buildings, to a greater or lesser degree, have social value in heritage terms as they are valued by their local communities for the services they offer, or have offered in the past, and often for their architectural qualities and built form.

Changing technologies have resulted in changes to postal buildings. The introduction of telegraph offices and telephone exchanges in the second half of the nineteenth century brought about alterations and extensions to many existing postal buildings. Changes in mail handling in the twentieth century have also physically altered postal properties and resulted in the construction of new types of postal buildings. Since the 1980s, many existing postal buildings have been renovated to accommodate a change in focus to a more commercial or retail style of postal service, while new outlets have been opened in new and larger shopping centre complexes away from the traditional main street.

As a result of these trends, many of Australia Post's older properties have become redundant, in some cases leading to their divestment. Australia Post has devised a strategy to help it manage heritage places within its portfolio, including managing further change to heritage buildings and ensuring that Commonwealth heritage values are protected in the divestment process.

Thanks are extended to National Archives for their assistance in relation to some of the photographs.

Some post office descriptions are courtesy of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.