Launceston Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 68-72 Cameron Street, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. It was designed by William Waters Eldridge, with alterations prior to opening designed by Corrie and North. It opened in 1891, while the clock tower was completed in 1903 and altered in 1910. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
History
Launceston gained its first overland mail service from Hobart in 1816, a decade after the city was established in 1806. It is claimed that this was the first overland mail delivery service in Australia. From at least the 1820s, a private house post office service was operated. In 1856, a telegraph service was established and the first mail train services, to and from Hobart, commenced in 1877.
Located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Cameron and St John Streets, Launceston Post Office was built on the former site of the Royal Olympic Theatre, which was part of the London Tavern. Prior to this, the post office operated from at least four positions. In the 1820s, the first recorded postmaster, Arundel Wright, conducted business from the corner of York and St John Streets, possibly from Crabtree Corner. In the 1830s, the post office relocated to a cottage on the corner of Paterson and St John Streets, now the site of the Union Bank Building. Between 1839 and 1859, it operated at 27/53 George Street, also mooted to be the site of the first telegraph office. From 1859 to 1889, it operated out of the Government Offices on St John Street opposite.
Launceston Post Office was designed by the Tasmanian Government Architect William Waters Eldridge who had inspected the site in January 1885. Eldridge had recently completed a design for the Hobart Supreme Court buildings (1884–87) and his working drawings for the Launceston Post and Telegraph Office are dated 8 July 1885. On 23 November 1885, the building contract was awarded to James Hill (or Hills?). On 24 March 1887, the contract was transferred to John and Thomas Gunn who completed most of the construction by 1889. The design of the corner turret as a low conical spire was not well received by the public, and various modifications were put forward. In February 1890, a design by architects Corrie & North for a taller cylindrical tower topped by an octagonal pointed roof was accepted. On 22 December 1890 the telegraph office was opened and in January 1891, postal services were transferred from the government offices and the building opened.
When opened, the building was not well received by the local community; the bold external patterning and colour was considered controversial, as was the interior arrangement of the mailroom and quadrangle. Some asserted the design to be "the last and grossest insult to the people of Launceston" and called for its demolition. Further, by error, the tower was constructed without provision for a clock as originally intended.
The matter of the clock resurfaced during the city's 1906 centenary celebrations and the Launceston Clock and Chimes Committee was formed to initiate a public subscription push to fund its installation. The committee raised an estimated £1,339 for the purpose, but also used the opportunity to redress the presentation of the upper tower by replacing the top section with a taller design. In January 1908, Inspector-General Colonel Percy Owen the Commonwealth Department of Home Affairs Works Division, which had taken over responsibility for post office design following the passage of the Commonwealth Post and Telegraph Act in 1902, presented two bell tower options to the committee. Their preferred design was selected and an order placed with Gillett and Johnston of Croydon of Surrey, England for the clock and bells. The design for the Edwardian Baroque tower top, with clocks in all 4 faces, was by Hedley Westbrook, possibly under the supervision of the Commonwealth Senior Architect John Smith Murdoch, and working drawings were prepared by May 1908. The clock and bells were installed in October 1909 and the tower completed in 1910. At some point the John Street frontage was also modified by extending the first floor to the street, eliminating a porch, with a simple design much less strident than the original treatment.
The committee handed the clock and chimes over to the City Council on 11 July 1910. Australia Post took over this responsibility on 27 June 1949. In February 1969, the clock and chimes were powered electrically.