Toowoomba Post Office
| Toowoomba Post Office | |
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Toowoomba Post Office, 2014
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| Location | 136 Margaret Street, Toowoomba City, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 27°33′42″S 151°57′22″E / 27.5618°S 151.9562°ECoordinates: 27°33′42″S 151°57′22″E / 27.5618°S 151.9562°E |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Built | 1878 - 1908 |
| Architect | Francis Drummond Greville Stanley |
| Architectural style(s) | Classicism |
| Official name: Toowoomba Post Office (former) | |
| Type | state heritage (built) |
| Designated | 24 January 2003 |
| Reference no. | 600847 |
| Significant period | 1878-1908 (fabric) 1870s-1990s (historica, sociall) |
| Significant components | residential accommodation - post master's house/quarters, residential accommodation - telegraph master's house/quarters, tower - clock, post & telegraph office |
| Builders | John Gargett |
 Location of Toowoomba Post Office in Queensland
Location of Toowoomba Post Office in Queensland
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Toowoomba Post Office is a heritage-listed former post office at 136 Margaret Street, Toowoomba City, Toowoomba, Toowoomba Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and built from 1878 to 1908 by John Gargett. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 January 2003.
The Toowoomba Post Office, of which construction was completed in 1880, is one of three extant post offices built in the Classic Revival Style, with the other two at Maryborough (1866) and central Brisbane (1871). The fourth building of this type was at Dalby (1867), but is now demolished.
The opening and closing of "Postal Stations" reflected the fortunes of some of the more precarious settlements and indicates some of the difficulties faced by the Postal Department in providing services. Where the establishment of towns was closely connected with the opening of a railway, Post Offices were often at the railway station, where mail was received and sent, and where the Telegraph Office could benefit by the sharing of equipment with the Railway. The Post Office was one of the first Government functions to be established in a locality, and the need for regular communication was closely followed or sometimes preceded by the Police Station.
The period between 1859-1879 marked the separation of the Post and Telegraph Departments and a wide range of buildings appeared throughout Queensland to accommodate both functions. It was also the principal period of colonisation, with Government architect F. D. G. Stanley in charge of design and construction of post offices from 1872 - 1880, when a series of grand Post and Telegraph buildings were erected in both masonry and timber in the major provincial centres, of which Toowoomba was one.
The first postal service on the Darling Downs comprised a pack-horse mail service from Brisbane to Drayton in 1845, which was subsequently upgraded to a horse-drawn coach. By 1864 there were 42 mail services in Queensland, and the following year, Cobb and Co were appointed the official carriers of the state's mail.
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