Extract
from : "The City of Grafton" a
1981 CRHS Publication.
GRAFTON
POST OFFICE
The
first postal services in the district were carried out by
Arthur Price from his slab-hut store in 1840. Later Joseph
Sharp took over this role. The first Government paid Postal
Service was run by Thomas Fisher from 1859-1 870 at his store
on the banks of the Clarence River.
The
Telegraph Office originally housed in the Court House in
1862 was transferred to premises in Prince Street in 1865.
In 1870 the Postal Dept. was also transferred to these premises
and both services continued to function from there until
1878.
In
1874, Mr. Thomas Bawden, M.P. arranged for government funds
and tenders were called for the erection of a
new Post and Telegraph Office, to be located in Vlctoria
Street. The architect was James Barnett, Colonlal Architect,
and Mr. William Kinnear was the successful contractor. In
October of that year Mrs. Thomas Fisher, the Mayoress of
Grafton, laid the foundation stone amid great ceremony which
was followed by an offical luncheon and a ball that night.
Due to departmental problems in Sydney, the building was
still not completed over three years later and much comment
was made in the local papers about the high cost of renting
the Prince
Street premlses and the delay in completing the new building.
By early 1878, the main building had been completed
and the staff quickly moved in, although the new furniture
and fittings did not arrive until late the following year.
Due to the incomplete nature of the building at the time
there was no grand official opening.
The
clock, built to replace the 1 o’clock time gun (which
was very unpopular with Graftonians and mysteriously disappeared
in 1874), was not installed until 1879. Although this clock
did strike, it was out of sight of all the mair, business
houses in Prince Street and so a more centrally located clock
tower was the first choice of the City Fathers when a Jubilee
Memorial was suggested in 1909.
The
Post Office is part of the National Trust Victoria Street
Classified group.
