MarketBundaberg Police Station
Company Profile

Bundaberg Police Station

Bundaberg Police Station is a heritage-listed former court house (1882–1958) and former police station (1958–1997) at Quay Street, Bundaberg Central, Bundaberg, Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1882 to 1958. It is also known as Bundaberg Court House. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 1 December 1998.

History
The former Bundaberg Police Station complex is located at the corner of Maryborough and Quay Streets and addresses Quay Street. The former Bundaberg Court House is a rendered masonry and timber building constructed between 1882 and 1884. The former lock-up keepers quarters, a single-storeyed brick and timber building and the lockup, a single-storeyed L-shaped brick building, were constructed in 1900 as part of a larger police complex that included the now-demolished two-storeyed brick Police Station. == Description ==
Description
The former Bundaberg Police Station Complex is a single storey rendered brick building, situated on the corner of Quay and Maryborough Streets and oriented towards the Burnett River. The building has a rectangular floor plan with a corrugated steel hipped roof behind a parapet which faces Quay Street and returns down the sides of the building to flanking verandahs that spring from below the soffit of the main roof and run down each side of the building. The eastern verandah is partially enclosed. The verandahs are supported on timber posts with decorated capitals and a vertical boarded scalloped valance to form a Tudor arch. The verandah originally ran across the rear of the building but has subsequently been enclosed when the rear of the building was extended. Several other stages of additions are evident. The principal facade is asymmetric about the main entrance and retains the original entrance doors and half lite above and an extended masonry pediment over supported by round columns with Doric capitals. Two round-headed double hung windows are located on the east side of the main entrance and are framed by piers with moulded capitals. To the west the building has been extended in replicated detail when a strong room was added in 1935. The architrave of the windows is in relief from the surrounding wall surface and has a hood mould and keystone over which springs off recessed piers with moulded imposts. The strongroom window has vertical bars and the other walls are blank. An entablature connects the pediment over the front entrance and returns down the sides of the building. Above this is a balustrade parapet with hourglass balusters. Original chimneys survive in the north eastern corner and at the rear of the building. Access to the building is via a central hall from Quay Street which has a pair of flanking offices on the eastern side. Original fireplaces exist in both these rooms. On the west side of the hall is a single room which was created in 1935 when the strongroom was added. The hall leads, via a single door, to the Court Room which has an extended wall height to create a lofty space. This has recently been refurbished when subdividing partitions were removed to reveal the original volume and detailing. French doors with semi-circular over lights and three round-headed double hung windows open onto the side verandahs. Over each opening to the verandahs are high level narrow casement windows. The ceiling rakes from the walls to a line with the collar tie of the heavy timber trusses. To the east of the Court House is a single-storey brick residence. The original plan form of this building is an "L" with an attached square room at the rear that was originally the Charge Room. The building has hipped roofs which have wide eaves with exposed timber frame soffits and are clad in corrugated galvanised iron. It has a timber front verandah which has been enclosed. The verandah roof is contiguous with the main roof. The west side displays three double hung windows that have prominent hoods which have diagonal timber sides and corrugated iron roofs. A flat-roofed brick addition has been made to the east verandah. Internally the building retains its original configuration with a main living room off the front verandah and three rooms down the western side with the Charge Room off the east verandah. The laundry addition is accessed down stairs off the east verandah. To the south and the rear of the residence and to the east of the former Court House is a single-storey brick cell block. This building has a narrow L-shaped plan form with a gabled corrugated clad roof and small high level barred windows on the north and east sides. A low pitched verandah with security screening is on the north side. The building was originally documented to have three four cells but appears to have been constructed with five. A charge room was added to the north west corner in the 1950s. == Heritage listing ==
Heritage listing
The former Bundaberg Police Station complex was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 1 December 1998 having satisfied the following criteria. '''The place is important in demonstrating the evolution or pattern of Queensland's history.''' The former Bundaberg Police Station Complex consists of a single-storeyed masonry building constructed in 1882–1884 and a single-storeyed lock up keepers residence and cell block constructed in 1900. The scale and form of the buildings demonstrates the importance of Bundaberg as regional service centre for the sugar industry and other primary production activities in the Burnett region. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a particular class of cultural places. The principal building of the reserve was used as the Bundaberg Court House from 1882 to 1958 and Police Station from 1958 to 1997, demonstrating the evolving patterns of justice administration, influenced by two distinct stages of prosperity in the history of Bundaberg and Queensland. The 1900 lock up keepers quarters and the cell blocks, remnants of a larger police reserve, demonstrates the close spatial and working relationship between the dual arms of justice administration. The place is important because of its aesthetic significance. The former Bundaberg Police Station Complex is aesthetically dominated by the former Bundaberg Court House, designed to operate with a grand street presence. The complex forms an integral part of a precinct of government buildings including the 1958 Bundaberg Court House and the 1985 Waldren building, providing an eclectic streetscape of modern and traditional buildings, with both grand and domestic scale. '''The place has a special association with the life or work of a particular person, group or organisation of importance in Queensland's history.''' The former Bundaberg Police Station Complex has a special association with acting Colonial Architect George St. Paul Connolly, of the Queensland Department of Public Works, as an example of his work during the 1880s. The former Bundaberg Police Station Complex has a special association with Queensland police and judiciary, demonstrating the evolution of work practices and the changing nature of the lifestyle specifically associated with police force employment in a major regional centre. == References ==
tickerdossier.comtickerdossier.substack.com