Post Office / Fish and Chip Shop

Statement of Significance

The Post Office and Fish and Chips Shop has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
• The place represents the desires and ambitions of the Mundijong district for their own branch of the Armadale-Kelmscott Co-op Society.
• The place reflects the expansion of the district.
• The place’s form, scale and materials reflect the immediate Post-War period.
• The place positively contributes to the Paterson Street streetscape, opposite the railway.

Physical Description

The building is located on the northern corner of Paterson Street and Whitby Street and opposite Mundijong Railway Station. The building addresses Paterson Street with a parking area to the north and south side of the building. To the north of the building is the two storey Mundijong Hotel.
The double fronted single storey building features two gable roofs with a central box gutter. There is a gable roof to the rear on the north elevation and hip roof forms to the west elevation. The roof is corrugated steel (Colorbond- red colour). An awning supported by circular steel posts extends the full length of the front elevation. The Post Office is located on the north side of the building and the Fish & Chips Shop is located on the south side.
The Post Office is clad in compressed fibre cement sheeting with cover battens to the front elevation and corrugated steel to the north elevation. Private post office boxes are located to the front elevation with post office branding as well as branding to the gable end. The north elevation has top hung double sliding doors.
The Fish & Chips Shop has a painted brick front façade with a central aluminium door and fixed glazing windows either side. The façade and gable have ‘Mundijong Fish and Chips’ branding. The south elevation has flat profiled compressed fibre cement sheeting with cover battens to the upper section of the façade and compressed fibre cement horizontal boarding to the lower section. The eaves have exposed timber rafter ends and timber framed windows to the west elevation.

History

The building is located on Lot 7 but Lots 6 and 7 were owned together until 1981. William Charles Morgan owned Lots 6 and 7 from August 1939. (1) The Mundijong Hotel (Tavern) is located on Lot 6 (refer to SJ9-03 from draft Local Heritage Survey).
In July 1947, the Armadale-Kelmscott Co-op Society received approval from the Roads Board to ‘re-erect a building secured from Disposals Commission adjoining the Hotel Mundijong’. The Board ruled that the building had to be set back at least 24ft from the street frontage. (2) A vehicle crossing over the Paterson Street footpath was approved by the Board in April 1948.(3)
The Mundijong branch of the Armadale-Kelmscott Co-operative Society opened on 27 September 1947.
The branch was the result of the 100 members or so of the district that had, ‘nursed ambitions for a good while, and felt that their present support, with prospects of expansion in the future, were enough to make it worthwhile for Mundijong to be granted its own co-operative branch store of the parent Co-op.’ The new store also incorporated a storeroom and quarters. (4)
Morgan transferred Lots 6 and 7 to Claude Hotchin in April 1951. William Dwyer, a newsagent and his wife, Elizabeth, owned Lots 6 and 7 from July 1960. William died in 1961 and Elizabeth Dwyer owned both lots before transferring them to Josef and Vera Gurah in January 1962. (5)
Lots 6 and 7 were divided in March 1981 and Lot 7 was transferred to Calogero Algeri, an orchardist and his wife Guiseppa. The building remained in private ownership. (6)
Since c.1893, the Mundijong Post Office had operated from Lot 8 on the southern intersection of Whitby and Paterson Streets. This is to the south of current Post Office and Fish and Chips Building.
Since the mid-1990s, part of the building has been used as a Post Office. (7)
In 2022, the place is occupied by the Post Office and a Fish and Chips Shop.

Condition

Good

Uses

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.