MELBOURNE’S OLD GPO CLOCK TOWER

Published on by Vicki

Once upon a time, Melbourne’s General Post Office was the centre of the city’s postal service where thousands of letters were received and sorted. Located on the intersection between Bourke and Elizabeth Street, the GPO building was conveniently positioned in the city’s central business district and its location continues to be used as a point of reference to measure distance from the centre of Melbourne. From the mid-19th Century right up until 1992, Melbournians visited the GPO to post letters, buy stationary, check their PO boxes and pay bills, but these days the building is home to retailers and restaurants.

(note: I didn’t have the right lens to capture the rest of the building when walking through the city earlier this week, but I liked the image all the same).

21 thoughts on “MELBOURNE’S OLD GPO CLOCK TOWER”

  2. It has/had a beautiful old interior when it was still a post office. It’s heritage listed so I presume they’ve still retained the beautiful old interior wall and ceiling decorations right around the modern shops built inside the building.

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  3. It is a favourite building of mine. (Early today I was a a friend’s house and I wanted to take a photograph. But I said, Oops, I brought the wrong lens.” It is a bit of a nuisance sometimes).

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  4. It happens all the time to me nowadays since I no longer have a 18-200mm lens for the Canon DLSR (wore out and got stuck halfway zoomed) and the Sony a6000 18-200mm lens (which broke in the big fall in Melbourne Cemetery in 2015).

    To this day, I still regret not having a 18-200mm lens as it covered close-ups as well as pretty good distant bird shots. It was very good for insect shots too.

    (since there’s no Photography budget left, I keep thinking about selling my heavy 150-500mm lens which would buy another 18-200mm, BUT THEN, I get a great bird shot with the 150-500mm lens and decide to keep it 🙂 )

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  7. Thanks Peggy.
    I think it was because the white cloud highlighted the side of the clock tower in shadow so well. This is one of the only, if not THE only, shot I have of the tower in shadow.

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  15. Glad to hear you like it Otto.
    I have to admit, this is best I’ve seen the clock tower (photographically). White cloud behind and deep shadow on one side. I do wish I’d had a different lens though. I couldn’t step back any further to take in the top of the flag. I just converted it to B & W and increased the midtowns a bit to show up the stonework on the sunny side of the tower.

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  17. I agree, Tanja.

    Melbourne, in fact the whole of Australia, has many buildings and other items Heritage listed. Old trees, monuments, landscapes, old stone horse troughs even (are listed on the Heritage Register and not to be removed or changed). Many of Melbourne’s old buildings have had their facades restored even if the interiors are made over to offices or apartments.

    I heard an English tourist comment on the wide variety of Architecture in Melbourne. But its the green spaces, parks and gardens that are a significant part of the city and suburbs too.

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