The Art Nouveau Lettering of the Leongatha Post and Telegraph Office – McCartin Street, Leongatha

            Built between 1906 and 1907, the Leongatha Post and Telegraph Office is located in the very bustling heart of the South Gippsland town of Leongatha at 4 McCartin Street.   It is axially sited at the end of Blair Street in the town's commercial centre.  It is sited on the most prominent intersection in town, with strong visual relationships to the courthouse to the north and Remembrance Building and old Shire Offices to the south, as well as the Mechanics’ Institute and McCartin Hotel, also very close by.

Designed by J. B. Cohen of the Victorian Public Works Department in 1906, the successful winner of the construction tender was local builder Neil Falconer, who quoted its erection of the post office for just over £1058.00.  The building was completed and opened to the public in February 1907. The building originally included a residential quarters for the postmaster, but this was converted to house the local telephone exchange in the 1930s.  The mailroom was extended in 1914, resulting in a projecting bay from the north elevation.  The building remains in use today as a post office (owned and operated by Australia Post), although the telephone exchange has been relocated to a new building constructed to the rear of the site.

The Leongatha Post and Telegraph Office is a timber building constructed in Federation Queen Anne style architecture.  It features a hipped, corrugated iron roof, oriented north and south, with half-hips to the sides.  The front elevation features two projecting gables, both stepped and bracketed with roughcast infill, above the main office and the main entry.  The original Art Nouveau lettering "Post & Telegraph Office" remains below the roughcast panel.  The entry beneath the porch features red brick piers and square timber posts with neck moulds, standing on a low balustrade (originally tuck-pointed).  It also has tessellated floor tiles and bluestone steps.  The west side roof extends to form a side porch, featuring paired, turned timber posts.  The front windows still retain their Art Nouveau stained glass upper panels, featuring stylised tulips in brilliant vermillion.

The Leongatha Post and Telegraph Office is one of a small group of post offices, along with those in Terang (1903), Sorrento (1904), Korumburra (1904) and Woodend (1905), to be constructed for the Commonwealth by the Victorian government in the early years after Federation.  These buildings were all designed and constructed by the Victorian Public Works Department under the supervisor of its chief architect, J. H. Marsden, even though postal and telegraphic services were among the powers transferred to the Commonwealth from the states in 1901.  After the early months of 1907, no further post offices were built in Victoria until 1909, when a concerted building campaign was commenced by the Commonwealth, which erected postal buildings at Canterbury, Hawthorn, Brunswick, and Beulah.  Others followed in 1910, at Casterton, Birchip, Box Hill, Clifton Hill, Port Melbourne, Sandringham, Rupanyup, Violet Town and Willaura.  More than a dozen or so more had been completed prior to the outbreak of World War I.
Today the Leongatha Post and Telegraph Office is one of the oldest still functioning post offices built for the Commonwealth after Federation in 1901.

Leongatha is a town in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, South Gippsland Shire, Victoria, Australia, located 135 kilometres south-east of Melbourne. The town is the civic, commercial, industrial, religious, educational and sporting centre of the region.   The Murray Goulburn Co-operative Co. Limited, is a farmers' co-operative which trades in Australia under the Devondale label, and has a dairy processing plant just north of the town producing milk-based products for Australian and overseas markets.  First settlement of the area by Europeans occurred in 1845. The Post Office opened as Koorooman on 1 October 1887 and renamed Leongatha in 1891 when a township was established on the arrival of the railway.  The Daffodil Festival is held annually in September. Competitions are held and many daffodil varieties are on display. A garden competition is also held and there are many beautiful examples throughout the provincial town.  The South Gippsland Railway runs historical diesel locomotives and railcars between the market and dairy towns of Nyora and Leongatha, passing through Korumburra.

Taken in: Australia / Victoria / Leongatha (show map)

Taken on: January 10, 2013

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Leongatha Post and Telegraph Office

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/3.5, 1/500 sec, 9.7mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/500)
Focal Length:	9.7mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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