The Former Korumburra Post and Telegraph Office - Corner Bridge Street and Mine Road, Korumburra

            The former Korumburra Post and Telegraph Office complex, built in 1904, was the first post and telegraph office in the Shire to be constructed on behalf of the newly formed Commonwealth Postmaster-General's office, and is believed to be only the third in the State. It is highly important in both a local and regional sense as a notable piece of architecture that demonstrates the impact of Australian Federation and the importance of Korumburra as a major country town at that time.  

The Korumburra Post and Telegraph Office is a local landmark, partially because it is located on an acute block on the summit of a hill on the corner of Mine Road and Bridge Street, which is a major intersection, but also for its grand architectural design.  Designed by architect J. B. Cohen and Constructed by Neil Falconer, the former post and telegraph office is a fine example of Federation Queen Anne design by a government department, featuring a full range of inventive decorative elements and forms.  Its extravagant style makes it one of the most notable buildings in the Shire, which demonstrates the importance of Korumburra during the Federation period. Like most Federation Queen Anne style buildings, it has an extremely complex roofline, projecting bays, overtly tall chimneys with terracotta and roughcast decoration and features an ornamental tower over the entrance.  Built of red brick, with stone detailing, the post and telegraph office has beautiful stained glass windows of stylised Art Nouveau tulips.  The postmaster’s house, attached to the right-hand side of the post and telegraph office with a frontage onto the more residential Bridge Street, has two gables and a shady verandah decorated with complex ornamental wooden fretwork.  

Whilst Korumburra still has a post office, it is no longer located in the grand premises built in 1904.  Today, the former Korumburra Post and Telegraph Office has a new lease on life as an antiques and collectables shop, with the owners residing in the old postmaster’s residence.  
    
Korumburra is a medium-sized dairy and farming town in country Victoria, located on the South Gippsland Highway, 120 kilometres south-east of Melbourne.  Surrounded by rolling green hills, the town has a population of a little over 4,000 people.  Korumburra has built itself on coal mining (after the discovery of a coal seam in 1870), local forestry and dairy farming.  Whilst the coal seam has been used up, farming in the area still thrives and a great deal of dairy produce is created from the area.  The post office in the area opened on the 1st of September in 1884, and moved to the township on the railway survey line on the 1st of November 1889, the existing office being renamed Glentress.  The steam railway connecting it with Melbourne arrived in 1891.  Whilst the train line has long since operating commercially, it has found a new life as the popular tourist railway the South Gippsland Railway which operates a heritage railway service between the major country centre of Leongatha and the small market town of Nyora.

Taken in: Australia / Victoria / Korumburra (show map)

Taken on: January 8, 2013

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Federation Queen Anne style

Federation Queen Anne architecture

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rough cast

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wrought iron finial

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Sets appears in: • Edwardiana • Korumburra the Gippsland Market Town more » • The Former Korumburra Post and Telegraph Office « less

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/3.5, 1/1000 sec, 9.7mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/3.5
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1000)
Focal Length:	9.7mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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