General Post Office Hobart | |
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General information | |
Architectural style | Edwardian Baroque |
Address | 9 Elizabeth St |
Town or city | Hobart |
Country | Australia |
Coordinates | 42°52′57″S147°19′48″E / 42.8824°S 147.3301°E |
Groundbreaking | 1901 |
Opened | 1905 |
Cost | £30,000-£35,000 [1] (AUD $50,028) |
Owner | Australia Post |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | Alan Cameron Walker |
Place ID | 165 [2] |
Status | Permanently Registered |
General Post Office (abbreviation GPO, commonly known as the Hobart GPO) is a landmark building located on the corner of Elizabeth Street and Macquarie Street in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It stands next to the former Mercury Building and has served as the headquarters of the Tasmanian Postal system since its construction in 1905, though mail processing has now been moved to Glenorchy.
It has been listed on the Commonwealth Heritage List since 2004. [3]
The Hobart General Post Office (GPO) was constructed between 1901 and 1905 on the site known as ‘Lords Corner’ at the north corner Elizabeth and Macquarie Street. The government had acquired the site in 1892, it being diagonally opposite Franklin Square, a town square laid out by the NSW Governor Macquarie in 1811, who intended it to be surrounded by a church and courthouse or town hall and main guard building. By 1894, public buildings including the town hall, the supreme court and public offices, both facing Macquarie Street, flanked the square, which was planted as a public park. [3]
An architectural competition for the design of a new GPO was announced on 20 June 1899 and attracted nine entries, and an Edwardian Baroque style [3] at a cost of £30,000-£35,000 [1] design by a local architect Alan Cameron Walker was declared the winner. On 6 July 1901, the visiting Duke and Duchess of York (later King George V and Queen Mary) laid the foundation stone.
The Commonwealth government however refused to fund the post office tower and bells, calling them 'enormous and unnecessary'. [1] The £1,465 to build them was raised by public subscription. It was named the Queen Victoria Clock Tower and opened on 22 June 1906, a year after the rest of the building. [3] The clock was made by Fritz Ziegeler of Melbourne.It has the traditional Westminster chimes and is fitted with a Denison double three-legged gravity escapement with jewelled pallets and hardened legs. The bells were made by John Taylor & Co in Loughborough, England. Fritz Ziegeler made many clocks in Tasmania. His other public clock in Hobart is in the Palfreymans Building Corner Elizebeth and Burnett St, North Hobart, this was installed in 1919 and is a small timepiece. In 1912 Roald Amundsen posted his telegram to the King of Norway from Hobart GPO to announce the first successful trip to the South Pole. [4]
In June 2015 while the GPO was undergoing restoration, vandals climbed scaffolding on the tower, scrawled graffiti on it, and damaged the GPO clock. It was repaired. [5]
The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the Last Glacial Period when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland. Little is known of the human history of the island until the British colonisation of Tasmania in the 19th century.
Sullivans Cove is on the River Derwent adjacent to the Hobart City Centre in Tasmania. It was the site of initial European settlement in the area, and the location of the earlier components of the Port of Hobart.
Davey Street is a major one way street passing through the outskirts of the Hobart City Centre in Tasmania, Australia. Davey street is named after Thomas Davey, the first Governor of Van Diemen's Land. The street forms a one-way couplet with nearby Macquarie Street connecting traffic from the Southern Outlet in the south with traffic from the Tasman Highway to the east and the Brooker Highway to the north of the city. With annual average daily traffic of 37,200, the road is one of the busier streets in Hobart.
TheMercury is a daily newspaper, published in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, by Davies Brothers Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of News Corp. The weekend issues of the paper are called Mercury on Saturday and Sunday Tasmanian. The current editor of TheMercury is Craig Herbert.
Hamilton is a rural locality in the local government area (LGA) of Central Highlands in the Central LGA region of Tasmania. The locality is about 73 kilometres (45 mi) north-west of the city of Hobart. The 2016 census recorded a population of 241 for the suburb of Hamilton.
The Hobart Bus Mall is the main urban bus interchange for Metro Tasmania in the Hobart central business district. Situated on Elizabeth Street, it serves daily commuters from suburbs, nearby cities, and towns including Clarence, Glenorchy, Richmond, Cambridge and Kingborough. The interchange spans Elizabeth Street between Macquarie and Collins streets, with additional bus stops at Franklin Square and one on Liverpool Street near the Elizabeth Street Mall's north end. The interchange is within 500 metres (1,600 ft) of connecting coach services on Murray Street, ferry services and airport bus services at Brooke Street Pier.
Ross is a village in the Midlands of the state of Tasmania in Australia. On the Macquarie River, Ross is located 78 km south of Launceston and 117 km north of Hobart. The town is listed on the Register of the National Estate and is noted for its historic bridge, original sandstone buildings and convict history.
Hobart City Centre is a suburb surrounded by metropolitan Hobart, which comprises the original settlement, the central business district, and other built-up areas. It is the oldest part of Hobart and includes many of the city's important institutions and landmarks, such as Parliament, the Supreme Court, Franklin Square, the Elizabeth Street Mall, the Royal Hobart Hospital, the Theatre Royal, Odeon Theatre, State Library, the NAB Building, the Museum, and the Cenotaph. The city centre is located in the local government areas of the City of Hobart.
Trams no longer operate in Hobart, the capital of the Australian state of Tasmania, but the city once had an extensive and popular system that reached the majority of its suburbs. It was the first complete electric tram system in the Southern Hemisphere, and the only one in Australia to operate double-decker trams.
The Hotel Grand Chancellor Hobart is a twelve-storey hotel located on the waterfront of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
The General Post Office, situated on the corner of Elizabeth and Bourke streets in Melbourne, is the former General Post Office for Victoria, Australia.
Franklin Square is a 1.6-acre (0.63-hectare) oak-lined public square located in the Hobart City Centre in Tasmania, Australia. It is named for Sir John Franklin, an Arctic explorer and former Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land. The centrepiece of the park is a statue of Franklin, with an epitaph written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. As the city's most central urban parkland and transportation hub, Franklin Square is frequently utilised for festive markets, public gatherings and as a place for public protest.
Henry Hunter (1832–1892) was a prominent architect and civil servant in Tasmania and Queensland, Australia. He is best known for his work on churches. During his life was also at various times a state magistrate of Tasmania, a member of the Tasmanian State Board of Education, the Hobart Board of Health, a Commissioner for the New Norfolk Insane Asylum and President of the Queensland Institute of Architects.
Gretna is a rural locality in the local government areas (LGA) of Central Highlands and Derwent Valley in the Central and South-east LGA regions of Tasmania. The locality is about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south-east of the town of Hamilton. The 2016 census has a population of 211 for the state suburb of Gretna. It was formerly known as Stony Hut Plains, though the Gretna post office was known as Macquarie Plains for many years. It has a postcode of 7140.
Ingle Hall is a landmark building in Hobart, Tasmania on the corner of Macquarie and Argyle Streets. It has served numerous purposes over its history and is vacant; it was most recently used as The Mercury print museum. It is unknown when the building was built as it predates any government record holding by the state of Tasmania, which began in 1822. It is named for John Ingle, one of the two possible first inhabitants of the building.
Murray Street is one of four north-west roads within the Hobart City Centre (CBD). The street is named for Captain John Murray, commandant at Hobart Town, by Lachlan Macquarie. One of Hobart's original seven streets, Murray Street was formalised by surveyor James Meehan (1774-1826) on 25 November 1811.
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.
Queenstown Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 32-34 Orr Street, Queenstown, Tasmania, Australia. It was designed by the Tasmanian government's Public Works Office and built in 1902, with the tower added in 1909. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 June 2004.
North Hobart Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 412-414 Elizabeth Street, North Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 8 November 2011.
The Odeon Theatre is a historic former cinema and live entertainment venue in the city of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.