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TERANG POST OFFICE

Location 28 HIGH STREET TERANG, CORANGAMITE SHIRE File Number 608398 Level Registered

[1/3] TERANG POST OFFICE SOHE 2008 [2/3] 1 terang post office terang [3/3] H01753 plan

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
Terang Post Office was built in 1903-04 to the design of Victorian Public Works Department architect JH Marsden. Until about 1909 when the new Commonwealth established its own public works capability the States continued to construct public buildings on its behalf. The design, on a prominent corner, is a mixture of Arts and Crafts and American Romanesque styles in red brick with an attached clock tower whose base forms the entry vestibule to the post office. Unusually, the clock was financed by public subscription which raised £300. The building has been extended in the same style both to the east and to the north. In 1968 the original slate roof was replaced with terra cotta tiles. In common with most post offices the postal hall and work spaces have been substantially altered.

How is it significant?
The Terang Post Office is historically and architecturally important to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
The Terang Post Office is architecturally significant as an accomplished design by architect JH Marsden in the Arts and Crafts and American Romanesque styles featuring multiple arched windows, a prominent roof, timbered gables and bracketed eaves. The tower which was added to the design to house the publicly financed clock is now the dominant feature and raises the scale of the building from its otherwise domestic proportions.

The Terang Post Office is historically important as an early Commonwealth building yet designed and constructed under the supervision of the Victorian Public Works Department. It is also an early example of the cooperative nature of State and Commonwealth public administration required to implement federation in Australia. The fine clock tower, the result of a public subscription, is historically important as a manifestation of civic pride and the first time a publicly financed clock had been installed in a Commonwealth building anywhere in Australia.