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Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
47 Hesse Street QUEENSCLIFF, QUEENSCLIFFE BOROUGH
Hesse Street Commercial Precinct

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Queenscliffe Borough
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office
Queenscliff Post Office map
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, c. 1920s, SLV
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff
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Statement of Significance

Statement of Significance as recorded under the Queenscliff Heritage Study 2009

Queenscliff Post Office is of local historical, aesthetic (architectural) and social significance. Despite some alterations, it remains relatively intact externally and is a design of considerable refinement and interest. It is one of a group of post offices constructed in an Elizabethan revival style as compared with the Victorian Italianate style which dominated post office design in the late nineteenth century.

Historically, it is of importance as a prominent, purpose-built facility that has operated continually as a post office since completion in 1887. The post office also contributes to an understanding of the workings and delivery of post and associated postal services in Queenscliff from the late nineteenth century. The building is of social significance to Queenscliff as a postal facility that has been known, used and valued by the local community since 1887.

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    • Physical Description 1

      Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff - Physical Description 1

      The interior accessories and public lobby ceiling were of polished kauri and blackwood. There was a public lobby and office; posting, telegraph and battery rooms; and the post master's quarters which consisted of an entrance hall, dining room and four bedrooms upstairs. Mr R. Sutherland executed the carpentry, Mr Marsham, the plastering, a Mr Holden, the plumbing and Mr Nott the painting. Mr F.H. Valentine was the joiner and it was said that his finest work lay in the staircase.(6)

      Since the completion of this splendid building, a new lobby was built on the south-west corner in 1888-9(7) and, much later, the slated roof was tiled, its cast iron cresting removed and the triangular roof vents taken away. Fortunately the flemish gable and stucco pediment have survived and thus the picturesque roofline is still prominent. The dichrome brickwork has been painted as have the stucco dressings and mouldings; the front doors have been replaced and a concrete masonry lean-to telephone room has been built on its western flank. However, the bronze-green paintwork, applied to external timbers, has been maintained. The residence section still has its trellis and verandah.

      Physical Description 2

      Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff - Physical Description 2

      Tiled roof painted brick and stucco 1887 two storey building largely ruined by inappropriate alterations and additions.

      Significant corner building.

      Physical Description 3

      Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff - Physical Description 3

      Extract from the 2009 study

      Queenscliff Post Office is a late-Victorian brick post office, designed in an Elizabethan-style, and located on the south-east corner of Hesse and Hobson streets. With the Vue Grand Hotel, on the south-west corner of this intersection, the two buildings form a pair of landmark buildings in the township.

      The building has Lethbridge bluestone basement walls and concrete footings. Geelong bricks of a dark colour were used for face brickwork, bright red bricks for the voussoirs and stucco mouldings of the lightest colour of Portland Cement were applied. The interior accessories and public lobby ceiling were of polished kauri and blackwood. There was a public lobby and office; posting, telegraph and battery rooms; and the post master's quarters which consisted of an entrance hall, dining room and four bedrooms upstairs.

      The Post Office's Hesse Street (west) elevation was originally symmetrically composed, but this symmetry has been disrupted by a small single-storey addition in 1915 to its south-west corner.[i] The slated roof has also been re-tiled, its cast iron cresting removed and the triangular roof vents taken away. The Flemish gable and stucco pediment have survived and thus the picturesque roofline is still prominent. Paintwork that concealed the di-chrome brickwork in the mid-twentieth century has been removed. A disabled ramp has been built along the front of part of the Hesse Street elevation. However, the bronze-green paintwork, applied to external timbers, has been maintained. The residence section, on the north elevation, still has its trellis and verandah. There is a small side garden to the north of the building; and a larger timber fenced rear garden which contains several trees.

      [i] PWD Summary Contracts 1888 No. 9/92 W. Golightly 112-14-11d

      Intactness

      Queenscliff Post Office, 47 Hesse Street, Queenscliff - Intactness

      GOOD

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Queenscliffe - Queenscliffe Urban Conservation Study

      Author: Allom Lovell & Associates P/L, Architects
      Year: 1982
      Grading:

      Queenscliffe - Queenscliffe Heritage Study

      Author: Lovell Chen
      Year: 2009
      Grading:

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