| Historical notes: | Background
The first official postal service in Australia was established in April 1809, when the Sydney merchant Isaac Nichols was appointed as the first Postmaster in the colony of NSW. Prior to this, mail had been distributed directly by the captain of the ship on which the mail arrived, however this system was neither reliable nor secure.
In 1825 the colonial administration was empowered to establish a Postmaster General's Department, which had previously been administered from Britain.
In 1828 the first post offices outside of Sydney were established, with offices in Bathurst, Campbelltown, Parramatta, Liverpool, Newcastle, Penrith and Windsor. By 1839 there were forty post offices in the colony, with more opened as settlement spread. During the 1860s, the advance of postal services was further increased as the railway network began to be established throughout NSW. In 1863, the Postmaster General WH Christie noted that accommodation facilities for Postmasters in some post offices was quite limited, and stated that it was a matter of importance that 'post masters should reside and sleep under the same roof as the office'.
The first telegraph line was opened in Victoria in March 1854 and in NSW in 1858. The NSW colonial government constructed two lines from the GPO, one to the South Head Signal Station, the other to Liverpool. Development was slow in NSW compared to the other states, with the Government concentrating on the development of country offices before suburban ones. As the line spread, however, telegraph offices were built to accommodate the operators. Unlike the Post Office, the telegraph office needed specialised equipment and could not be easily accommodated in a local store or private residence. Post and telegraph offices operated separately until 1870 when the departments were amalgamated, after which time new offices were built to include both postal and telegraph services. In 1881 the first telephone exchange was opened in Sydney, three years after the first tests in Adelaide. As with the telegraph, the telephone system soon began to extend into country areas, with telephone exchanges appearing in country NSW from the late 1880s onwards. Again the Post Office was responsible for the public telephone exchange, further emphasising its place in the community as a provider of communications services.
The appointment of James Barnet as Acting Colonial Architect in 1862 coincided with a considerable increase in funding to the public works program. Between 1865 and 1890 the Colonial Architects Office was responsible for the building and maintenance of 169 Post Offices and telegraph offices in NSW. The post offices constructed during this period featured in a variety of architectural styles, as Barnet argued that the local parliamentary representatives always preferred 'different patterns'.
James Johnstone Barnet (1827-1904) was made acting Colonial Architect in 1862 and appointed Colonial Architect from 1865-90. He was born in Scotland and studied in London under Charles Richardson, RIBA and William Dyce, Professor of Fine Arts at King's College, London. He was strongly influenced by Charles Robert Cockerell, leading classical theorist at the time and by the fine arts, particularly works of painters Claude Lorrain and JRM Turner. He arrived in Sydney in 1854 and worked as a self-employed builder. He served as Edmund Blacket's clerk of works on the foundations of the Randwick (Destitute Childrens') Asylum. Blacket then appointed Barnet as clerk-of-works on the Great Hall at Sydney University. By 1859 he was appointed second clerk of works at the Colonial Architect's Office and in 1861 was Acting Colonial Architect. Thus began a long career. He dominated public architecture in NSW, as the longest-serving Colonial Architect in Australian history. Until he resigned in 1890 his office undertook some 12,000 works, Barnet himself designing almost 1000. They included those edifices so vital to promoting communication, the law and safe sea arrivals in colonial Australia. Altogether there were 169 post and telegraph offices, 130 courthouses, 155 police buildings, 110 lockups and 20 lighthouses, including the present Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head, which replaced the earlier one designed by Francis Greenway. Barnet's vision for Sydney is most clearly seen in the Customs House at Circular Quay, the General Post Office in Martin Place and the Lands Department and Colonial Secretary's Office in Bridge Street. There he applied the classicism he had absorbed in London, with a theatricality which came from his knowledge of art (Le Sueur, 2016, 6).
The construction of new post offices continued throughout the Depression years under the leadership of Walter Liberty Vernon, who held office from 1890 to 1911. While twenty-seven post offices were built between 1892 and 1895, funding to the Government Architect's Office was cut from 1893 to 1895, causing Vernon to postpone a number of projects.
Walter Liberty Vernon (1846-1914) was both architect and soldier. Born in England, he ran successful practices in Hastings and London and had estimable connections in artistic and architectural circles. In 1883 he had a recurrence of bronchitic asthma and was advised to leave the damp of England. He and his wife sailed to New South Wales. Before leaving, he gained a commission to build new premesis for Merrrs David Jones and Co., in Sydney's George Street. In 1890 he was appointed Government Architect - the first to hold that title - in the newly reorganised branch of the Public Works Department. He saw his role as building 'monuments to art'. His major buildings, such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales (1904-6) are large in scale, finely wrought in sandstone, and maintaining the classical tradition. Among others are the Mitchell Wing of the State Library, Fisher Library at the University of Sydney and Central Railway Station. He also added to a number of buildings designed by his predecessors, including Customs House, the GPO and Chief Secretary's Building - with changes which did not meet with the approval of his immediate precedessor, James Barnet who, nine years after his resignation, denounced Vernon's additions in an essay and documentation of his own works. In England, Vernon had delighted his clients with buildings in the fashionable Queen Anne style. In NSW, a number of British trained architects whow were proponents of hte Arts and Crafts style joined his office and under their influence, Vernon changed his approach to suburban projects. Buildings such as the Darlinghurst First Station (Federation Free style, 1910) took on the sacale and character of their surroundings. Under Vernon's leadership, an impressive array of buildings was produced which were distinguished by interesting brickwork and careful climatic considerations, by shady verandahs, sheltered courtyards and provision for cross-flow ventilation. Examples are courthouses in Parkes (1904), Wellington (1912) and Bourke, Lands Offices in Dubbo (1897) and Orange (1904) and the Post Office in Wellington (1904)(Le Sueur, 2016, 7).
Following Federation in 1901, the Commonwealth Government took over responsibility for post, telegraph and telephone offices, with the Department of Home Affairs Works Division being made responsible for post office construction. In 1916 construction was transferred to the Department of Works and Railways, with the Department of the Interior responsible during World War II.
On 22 December 1975, the Postmaster General's Department was abolished and replaced by the Post and Telecommunications Department. This was the creation of Telecom and Australia Post. In 1989, the Australian Postal Corporation Act established Australia Post as a self-funding entity, heralding a new direction in property management, including a move away from the larger more traditional buildings towards smaller shop front style post offices.
For much of its history, the post office has been responsible for a wide variety of community services including mail distribution, an agency for the Commonwealth Savings Bank, electoral enrolments, and the provision of telegraph and telephone services. The town post office has served as a focal point for the community, most often built in a prominent position in the centre of town close to other public buildings, creating a nucleus of civic buildings and community pride.
Junee Post Office
On 20 January 1862, the residents of Junee petitioned the Postmaster General to have a post office established there. Junee was the largest town in the district known collectively as The Levels, and its central position in the district aided in its choice as the post office site. The petition was successful with a post office established at Junee on 1 May 1862 in the store of Mr Edward Smith, who was also appointed postmaster on a salary of (Pounds)12 per annum. The post office continued to operate from Smith's store until November 1867 when it moved to Mrs Dacey's Inn. The operation of the post office from the business premises of the postmaster or postmistress was common practice prior to the restructuring of the Postal Service into a professional government agency in 1862. Junee continued this tradition due to the town's small size in the 1860s, which did not justify the construction of a separate office at this time.
In May 1878, in anticipation of the opening of the new railway linking Sydney to Junee (opened 6 June 1878), the residents of Junee, Boree and Wantabadgery requested that a new office be opened at Junee Railway Station. A receiving station was subsequently opened at the station on 12 June 1878 in Mr George Dobbyns' store near the station, just six days after the opening of the railway. Dobbyns also had the contract to transport the mail between the station and the Junee township for (Pounds)25 per annum until November when it was transferred to Mr Denis Kaveneh. In November a petition was forwarded requesting that money order facilities be provided at the Railway Station Post Office, as they were from 5 May 1879.
In July 1881 Junee Railway Station Post Office was renamed Junee Junction Post Office, with a branch of the Government Savings Bank opened there on 1 July 1882. The 'junction' referred to the junction of the south western railway and the main southern railway around which a small township had developed.
In March 1883 a portable wooden building was purchased for (Pounds)135 to be used as a temporary telegraph office at Junee Junction. The telegraph had operated in Junee since 1878 with Mr Francis Turner as the telegraph master at Junee. The new 'American Cottage' style telegraph office was converted in August 1883 to serve as the post office as well. The local residents petitioned for the postmaster, Mr Mann, to be retained as Postmaster after the move, which he was in the position of Temporary Postmaster. The staff at Junee Junction comprised of Mann on (Pounds)104 plus (Pounds)12 porterage allowance per annum, a telegraph master on (Pounds)104 and a messenger on (Pounds)26 per annum.
Later, in 1883, Junee Junction became an official post office with Mr Mann as the first official postmaster. An assistant, A. Henriques, joined Mann in October 1884, after requesting help to cope with the increasing business at Junee Junction. Mann reported that the population of Junee Junction, taking in the three settlements of Crawlys Town, Dobbyns Town and Loftus, was 1100 adults.
In September 1884 the Junee Junction Progress Committee recommended that a post and telegraph office be erected on land adjoining the railway station.
As Junee Junction grew, the residents of old Junee began to call for the name to be changed. In June 1886 Mr S Storey, a storekeeper from Junee, complained that it was a great nuisance to have the Junction called by the same name as the town that had been in existence since the 1850s. A report noted that at this time the Junction had a population of 2000, while old Junee had approximately 100 people.
With the growing population, pressure to build the new post office increased and in 1886 the PMG approved construction of the new building. A site was purchased from the Railway Department for (Pounds)700 on Lorne Street. The block had a frontage of seventy five feet to Lorne street and was 100 feet deep. The Colonial Architect, James Barnet, forwarded the plans for the post office to the Works Department on 11 January 1887. As the building was to be attached to a railway premises, the Railway Department took charge of the construction and advised the cost would be approximately (Pounds)1200.
The tender for the construction was given out to Messrs Gatby and Flock by the railway department for (Pounds)1304.18.6, with construction completed and the building occupied by 11 July 1888. In August 1888 it was again suggested that the name of the post office be changed, this time to Junee which was the Borough name. However, the Department of Railways objected and so no change was made.
In October 1891 a Postal Inspector visited Junee Junction Post and Telegraph Office reported that the hours of the telegraph operators were too long, as there was only two in the office. As Junee was an important telegraph junction and relay station for messages the two operators often worked from 7.30am until 8.15pm, while taking turns working on Sunday. In contrast, the post office work was fairly distributed between the postmaster and his operators.
From November 1893, following representations from the Junee Municipal Council, the name of the Junee Junction Post Office was officially changed to Junee. During the same year repairs were carried out costing (Pounds)124. Further repairs and alterations were carried out on the building in 1897 by DH Taunton for (Pounds)773.17, finished in 1898. This work included the enlargement of the public lobby with a new twelve foot long counter opposite the entrance. The lobby was divided with the postal department on one side and the telegraph department on the other. In December 1898 the Department of Works decided to erect a balcony the full length of the Post Office instead of a verandah along half of it as had been originally contemplated.
In June 1899 a proposal for the erection of a clock at the office was discussed. Initially it was suggested that the clock could be placed in the fanlight of the office, but this was rejected on the basis that the position would block airflow to the office. It was decided that instead the clock would be erected on the verandah to the left of the entrance.
Repairs to the ceiling of the old portion of the post office were carried out on 18 July 1899. DH Taunton was again employed to replace the old ceiling, part of which had fallen in, with boards, and to reinstate the counter, glass screens and folding doors.
A single-storey addition to the northern side of the post office was constructed in c1909, with the front awning extended along the full length of the building at the same time. Further alterations were made to the office in 1927 by Mr AS Fairweather.
The first-floor balcony was removed and the French doors replaced with double hung sash windows during the 1960s. The post office was repainted in the early 1990s, and the interior retail area was changed at around the same time. |