Mt Magnet Post Office

Statement of Significance

The Post Office and Residence has high historic and social significance for its role in communications in the district since 1898. The place also has considerable streetscape value and, owing to its substantial size, fabric and form, is a notable building in the town. It is a good example of public offices in a county town of that era.

Physical Description

Built to a standard PWD design, the Post Office and Residence is a large stone building with a hipped corrugated iron roof. The building has verandahs to all sides, some enclosed with asbestos sheeting and aluminium framed windows. The west facade has a brick render to the lower wall to a height of lm, possibly to alleviate damp problems. The place features two brick chimneys, air vents to the roof, timber framed double hung sash windows, and a wind vein on the roof. There is also an unsympathetic solarhart heating system on the roof. An outside toilet is located to the rear of the Post Office.

History

Mail services commenced in Mount Magnet in April, 1893 and on 15 March 1896 it became an official Post and Telegraph Office. [The Postal History ofWA] The present Post Office building was constructed in 1898, the tender for the Post Office being called on 22 April 1898. [Government Gazette, pi016] The stone used was quarried locally from near the St. George Mine. An article in the Mount Magnet Miner describes the building upon completion: "The mail room is about 20x18. The receiving boxes are fitted with bolted shutters which may be locked on the closing of a mail, leaving only the slot for late letters... The western end of the mail room has been partitioned off into a receiving room where telegrams may be written; this space is 18x10. Off the mail room is the operating department and the battery and store room, and here the signs of a failing treasury are noticeable in the whitewashed walls, whereas all the rest are neatly plastered. Opening from the mail room on the east is the postmaster's office, which again opens into the private apartments. The private rooms are reached from a cool and wide passage which runs through the building, and consist of three rooms and kitchen, pantry and bathroom. The living room is a fine spacious apartment 18x12. Two large tanks of a capacity of 1000 gallons are placed behind the quarters, and one of a similar capacity behind the office. A neat picket fence with fluted iron gates encloses the office on the western side and on the Naughton street frontage, the yard attached to the quarters is of post and wire with a top railing. The actual contract work has been well done and is a credit to the contractors, but the Department have exhibited a parsimonious policy in many points of detail which will infallibly cost them more money eventually than if they had done the work thoroughly at first. The verandah is just a bed of loose pebble dust which will rise in clouds when stirred by thousands of feet." The Post Office was renovated in 1904 by H, Hart, [Government Gazette, 4/11/1904, p2831] and again in 1912 by S. Ford. [Government Gazette, 14/6/1912, p2226]

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: High Degree Modifications: Verandahs are partly enclosed with asbestos sheeting.

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update