Geelong Post Office

The current Geelong Post Office opened in 1994 and is located on the corner of Gheringhap and Little Myers Streets. The original post office was located on the corner of Ryrie and Gheringhap Streets. The Geelong Telegraph Station was located next door.

History

The first post office in Geelong was a corner of a store in Barwon Terrace, South Geelong, which opened around June 1840. Citation

last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=VIC&country= | accessdate = 2008-04-11 ]

From August 1842 the Geelong Advertiser office was used as a post office.

A permanent post office was completed in 1857 on the corner of Ryrie and Gheringhap Streets. It was demolished in 1889 to make way for the building that stands on the site today. The new building was opened in 1891, with one major omission - the clock tower did not have a clock in it.

Work on providing a clock and chimes did not start until July 1911, with a London firm contracted to supply the timepiece. Five bells were provided, the largest one weighing 15 hundredweight (approximately 765 kilograms). Each clock face was 2.5 metres in size, the hour hands are 1 metre long, and the minute hands 1.25 metres long.

Today

The Post Office was relocated to its current site by Australia Post in 1994. The building was purchased by the City of Greater Geelong for the use of community groups.

References

* [http://www.dtf.vic.gov.au/domino/Web_Notes/pressrel.nsf/617edadfbb2c6e244a25620d002cc3aa/25ab1bbd0eb2042b4a2561f100388d37!OpenDocument&Click= City of Greater Geelong purchases post office]
* [http://www.wilmap.com.au/atts/post_office.html Post Office - Geelong]
*Peter Begg (1990). "Geelong - The First 150 Years". Globe Press. ISBN 0-9592863-5-7