The General Post Office, or Sydney GPO, in Martin Place, is one of the city’s most recognisable heritage landmarks. Designed under Colonial Architect James Barnet, the large sandstone building was completed in 1891 following 25 years of construction. It was the headquarters of Australia Post until 1996, when it was privatised and refurbished. But what role has it played in the lives of those on the North Shore?
The clock tower was disassembled in 1942 during the Second World War to reduce visibility of the GPO in case of an air attack on Sydney. It was not rebuilt until 1964. While awaiting its restoration, a member of the North Shore Historical Society recounted her memories of the GPO clock in the Society’s 1962 journal.
In early 20th century North Sydney, she recalled, children from St Leonards Superior Public School (Greenwood’s) would run down Blue Street to check the time by looking across the Harbour towards the GPO. Without high-rise buildings blocking the view, young eyes could easily see the clock face. In the quieter hours of the day, the chimes of the clock could be clearly heard across the Harbour, forming a distinctive part of the city soundscape.
A red flag at the peak of the GPO clock tower on a summer’s day signalled the approach of a ‘southerly buster’. If the southerly change was expected at night, a red light glowed from the tower. These meteorological signals were as familiar in North Sydney as they were on the south side.
The Society member recalled going from school on 7 November 1918 to wait with crowds of people in Martin Place for the red southerly buster flag or light that would announce the ratification of the Armistice at the end of World War I. But the hours passed, night fell and no signal came. This was the so-called ‘False Armistice,’ four days before the actual ceasefire at 11am on 11 November 1918.
As well as the clock tower, another GPO feature familiar to Northsiders is the doric columns from the original Sydney Post Office. The first post office on the George Street site operated from 1830. Modifications to the existing building in 1847 included a grand portico of six doric columns, in the style of a Roman temple. With rapid population growth placing significant strain on the colonial postal service, the building was soon deemed unfit for purpose and demolished in 1863. Barnet considered incorporating the portico into the new building design, which would have been an unprecedented example of architectural reuse at the time.
In fact, three of the salvaged columns were sold into private ownership and two became public monuments. One was erected at Bradley’s Head, Mosman, in 1871 to mark one nautical mile from Fort Denison. Another was installed on the Crows Nest Estate (now the site of North Sydney Demonstration School), at the request of the government astronomer, to mark the time north of Sydney Observatory. North Sydney Council acquired this column in 1937 and erected it along the Milsons Point waterfront in the shadow of the Harbour Bridge, as part of Bradfield Park improvement works. Fifty years later, in 1987, the column was moved to Mount Street Plaza in North Sydney’s CBD to make way for the Harbour Tunnel. Landscaping work to refurbish the plaza as Brett Whiteley Place from 2014 necessitated the removal of the column yet again. The column was transferred to the City of Sydney in 2016 where it remains in storage. According to Tony Smith, Urban Design and Heritage Manager, the City Council intends ‘to find an appropriate long-term home for the column within the Sydney LGA where its history – and its travels – can be interpreted for the public’.
Historical Services, North Sydney Council.
