Residence (Former Post Office)
1 Harding Street, PORTARLINGTON VIC 3223 - Property No 301806
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Statement of Significance
B Listed - Regional Significance
STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE
The former Portarlington Post Office was opened in 1888 and designed in Victorian Tudor style by G B H Austin, assistant Public Works Department architect for the Western District. The building has been altered and its integrity is fair. See Physical Description It is of aesthetic, social and historic significance to the local Portarlington community
The former Portarlington Post Office is of significance in its contribution to the commercial main street of Portarlington and to the township and surrounding rural area as a centre of communication. It was important in linking Portarlington to the wider world by post and telegraph and later was also the site of the telephone exchange. It is one of the few elaborate architectural works constructed on the Bellarine Peninsula in the nineteenth century.
It is of LOCAL cultural significance.
References
REFERENCE
Duggan, C - History of Portarlington Post Office, Curator/Historian Port Office Museum, Victoria GHRC
Geelong Advertiser - 10.3.1888, 19.9.1888.
Trethowan B - Public Works Department 1851-1900 - Barch, These Uni of melb 1975.
Duggan op.cit.
Australia Archieves plans nos
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Residence (Former Post Office) - Physical Description 1
DESCRIPTION
The site consists of a freestanding building on the corner of Newcombe Street and Harding Street, on the edge of the Portarlington foreshore reserve. It was designed c1888 in Victorian Tudor style by GBH Austin, a public Works Department architect for the Western District, who designed several other similar post offices, including Geelong West.
The building is polychrome brown and cream bricks, with courses of contrasting brickwork, decorative iron grilles, a tiled gable roof running east-west, two bricks chimneys, and an elaborate balustrade-and-pediment parapet. The original Post Office had an elaborate verandah, balustrade and gable entrance on the south elevation fronting Newcombe Street, a clock in the front parapet gable, and formal gardens layed out to the east.
The south elevation has two pairs of separately flat arched, double-hung windows, with concrete sills, either side of a central opening, now blocked-in with a multi-light timber framed windows. The timber post, timber floor and corrugated iron roof verandah on the west elevation is still intact, complete with decoration.
Heritage Study and Grading
Greater Geelong - Bellarine Heritage Study
Author: Huddle, Howe, Lewis and Francis
Year: 1996
Grading:
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PORTARLINGTON MILLVictorian Heritage Register H0389
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PORTARLINGTON JETTYVictorian Heritage Inventory
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Masonic HallGreater Geelong City
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