Maryborough Post Office is at 227 Bazaar Street, corner Wharf Street, Maryborough, comprising the whole of Lot 9 RP147687. Maryborough Post Office is at the corner of Bazaar and Wharf Streets, near the Mary River docks area and next door to the Law Courts, a Federation-era building, with
Queens Park to its immediate north. The 1866–9 exterior was designed by Charles Tiffin, including the broad form of an
astylar palazzo with each
loggia in antis between flanking
pavilions with layered arched windows on the ground floor. The loggia arches are supported on square
columns with moulded springing points, suggesting a
Tuscan order but not making any order explicit. The
archivolts are moulded with strongly stated
keystones supporting a flat-fronted
course line. The ground-floor arches on the pavilions are double-layered with similar archivolt treatment to the arches in the loggias and recessed and surrounded by a second wall layer in cement-rendered brick. The upper level in Tiffin's design was composed of two recessed stories above each loggia framed by the first floors of each pavilion. The Bazaar Street side's north pavilion and the east pavilion on Wharf Street were marked on their first floors by a three-light window with two large masonry
mullions with segmental brick arches. The corner pavilion has two arched windows in its first storey, with a recessed wall layer inside the arch framing two narrow arched windows with a
roundel between their arches. Above that was a single storey extension to form a
clock tower. This was separated from the first floor pavilion below by a dressed panel with a set of slots, and a
coffered wall with a clock face inside the coffer facing Wharf Street, and a circular vent facing Bazaar Street. This level had a coffered
frieze, boxed
eave without bracketing, and a simple low-pitched
pyramidal roof. Above this roof was a flagpole with a ball roof
finial at its base. The
chimneys were in plain masonry with a
cornice,
string course necking and broadened base. The windows were small-paned frames, in double-hung
sashes on the first floor quarters elevations, broadened at the tower base into fully open arches; all upper windows on the Bazaar Street side now have heavily scaled concave canopies. The 1878–9 alterations included a loggia enclosure, to add more rooms and gain better natural
lighting. The tower was extended; the rear was also extended by about a third, and the north flanking
bay was absorbed into the recessed elevation next to a new projecting wing. The Bazaar Street side was terminated by a new bay reproducing the old flanking pavilion in elevation, and a terminating bay of large door width flanked by two corners with
rusticated quoins. The original
hipped roof was replaced by a
gable-hip. This arrangement needed more sun protection, so in 1886, during JJ Clark's term as Government Architect, the pavilions, tower and bays were then all linked by a deep sheltering
verandah, carried on turned columns, rounded at the corner, with two low gables fronting its
fascia directly in front of the corner tower bays. The tower's previous top level, housing the clock, was retained as a vented level with the circular vents of the original tower being carried all the way round, and with a new clock level including clock faces to all four sides, framed by an arch moulding carried on two squat
pilasters flanked by a
Corinthian column at each corner. The tower was then topped by an
Italianate balustrade with waisted
balusters. The original pyramidal roof and ball-based flagpole were not reinstated to the extended tower. In 1896, ten years after the ground floor verandah was added, a first floor
balcony was added to the Wharf Street frontage sitting directly over the verandah roof. The Bazaar Street upper floor gained a
coved roof hood as protection against western sun as well as a sunshade verandah form fronting the first floor drawing room. Subsequently, the loggia arches were closed over on the Wharf Street side, being replaced by double-hung sash windows and partly hidden by the
awning. The open loggia form was retained on the Bazaar Street side, at least for the time being. On the Wharf Street side the former loggia spaces were reassigned to an extension of the post office hall and several new offices. There was still no internal toilet at this stage, and nor does one appear to have been planned. In 1906 the telephone exchange was moved to a new outer wing added at the rear, and there were corresponding resitings of the telegraph and telegraph manager's quarters. An extra bedroom was added at this point. From this work, too, came the opening of the double-layered arch at the clock tower base, to allow better access to the
post office boxes inside. The concrete footings and the reinforced concrete floor may date from either this period or from the 1940s additions (see below). In 1925, probably under JS Murdoch's increasingly direct aegis, there was a resiting of internal function areas. Some time after this a timber-framed balcony was added to the north-east side at the rear. This was later walled in and converted to additional office space in the 1950s. The
Maryborough Town Council looked after the bells but removed them in 1935 when the nearby
Maryborough Town Hall gained its bells, though the lining, stair and some fittings remain inside the tower from its extension in 1879–80. The meeting room, current parcels room and cleaner's room retain some fittings and details left over from 1866. In the 1940s a divisional manager's office was added as part of a new wing at the rear. This was accompanied by a meeting room and recreation area replacing the original postmaster's and telegraph manager's quarters. In 1948 a new telephone exchange building was added to the site, during
Frank Gibson Costello's term as Government Architect, and a three-truck garage was built. These additions appear to have supplanted the earlier outbuildings on the site, some of which had been built with Tiffin's original design. The ground floor verandah and first floor balconies were all removed at this time and replaced with cantilevered entrance
awnings. These have themselves been taken away since then, so that by default the exterior is relatively close to its original form and its original intentions architecturally. A timber-framed mail room was added and several new doorways were opened up in 1956–7, and the mail room was extended in 1965. Concurrent with these works the internal spaces were upgraded with new timber and glass-panelled partitions, a refurbished public space and the floor and ceiling claddings were also substantially renewed. The original building was 2 storeys high with a 3-storey clock town. The clock tower extended to 5 storeys in 1879. The original fabric of the building includes: • Structural frame: Load-bearing solid brick on rendered
plinth and footings, timber-framed floor and roof (1866–1885). Reinforced concrete slab to ground floor. • External walls: rendered and over-painted brick with cement rendered dressings and rusticated quoins to principal street elevations and clock tower with painted brick to rear elevations. • Internal walls: Generally hard plastered
brickwork, later plasterboard partitioning. • Floor: Ground: reinforced concrete slab; first: timber framed and hardwood boarded. • Ceiling: Suspended grid-form acoustic tile, painted beaded timber boards, plasterboard and to first floor, areas of non-original strapped plaster sheet. • Roof: Timber framed, hipped form recently re-clad with rust red
Colorbond;
ogee profile cast iron rainwater goods; rendered brick chimneys with moulded caps. Skillion-roofed rear first floor verandah roof finished with rust red colorbond. • Other: timber-framed double-hung sash windows, "
french doors", cast iron columns to ground floor public spaces.
Condition Internally, wall, ceiling, floor and joinery fabric, including cast iron columns, original to the building and its subsequent nineteenth century stages of development remain throughout, albeit later modified, including the internal planning. Modifications include partitions and false ceilings. Alterations undertaken in 1906, 1925, 1950s and 1960s have impacted on the original albeit-evolved nineteenth century internal and external building components. Timber and brick surfaces throughout have also been overpainted. == Heritage listing ==