Geelong Post Office building, Victorian Heritage Register building in Geelong, Australia.
Geelong Post Office is a red brick structure with two stories built at the intersection of Ryrie and Gheringhap Streets in the city center. The building features a prominent tower containing a clock and displays French Second Empire architectural details such as multiple pediments and decorative rooflines.
Geelong's first post office opened around June 1840 in a corner of a store on Barwon Terrace, South Geelong; after August 1842 the Geelong Advertiser office served as the post office. A permanent post office was completed in 1857 at Ryrie and Gheringhap Streets by contractor William Crocker Cornish, and it was demolished in 1889 to make way for the present building, opened in 1891 without a clock in its tower.
The clock and chimes were installed in 1911 as a memorial to King Edward VII, paid for through a public fund-raising campaign, with the timepiece supplied by a London firm. The five bells, the largest weighing 760 kg, first rang on 2 December 1911. The building now serves as a youth services hub for the City of Greater Geelong.
The former post office stands at the corner of Ryrie and Gheringhap Streets, a central intersection easy to reach on foot. Its clock tower, with faces 2.5 metres across, is visible from several blocks away and helps with orientation. The building now operates as a youth services hub, so visitors should expect a working community facility rather than a postal counter.
The clock tower stood empty for two decades after the 1891 opening. A clock and chimes were installed only in 1911 as a memorial to King Edward VII, paid for by a public fund-raising campaign. Each face measures 2.5 metres across, the hour hands are a metre long and the minute hands 1.25 metres; the five bells, the heaviest at 760 kg, first rang on 2 December 1911.
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