The St Kilda Post Office Clock

The clock on the old St Kilda Post Office, on the corner of St Kilda Road and Inkerman Street, has disappeared. But it is not really the clock that is significant, it is the fact  Post Offices, as we knew them, have also disappeared. Once a focal point in every suburb and town they employed the Post Master or Mistress, a number of postal assistants, telegraph office staff and telephone exchange operators, who were all employed by the Postmaster-General's Department and later Australia Post.

The St Kilda Post Office opened in 1876, and on the other side of Inkerman Street was the Buck's Head Hotel, built in 1871 but, which in April 1892, changed its name to the Post Office Club Hotel. (1) The Post Office, served the community, with the clock prominent from the 1890s when the three centre archways were filled in, as shown in the photographs below.

 

St. Kilda Post and Telegraphic office, c. 1880s.

State Library of Victoria image H2000.2/4. This image has been cropped see full image here https://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/358947

St. Kilda Post Office, c. 1897-1899. 

Photographer: Sands and McDougall. 

State Library of Victoria image H27288/1f  

In the days past, public clocks such as those at the Post Office were essential, as not everyone had a watch. The clock also helped to keep local council workers on time as they made their way to the Council Depot in Inkerman Street - which has also vanished. In fact, the clock was so important that in 1929, the St Kilda Council had a complaint about the clock, which was often not working and the Council resolved to ask the officer in charge to have it repaired. (2)

However, from the late 1990s the days of the Government owning Post Offices were over and many were advertised for sale, with a lease back deal to Australia Post. For the St Kilda, Albert Park and Balaclava Post Offices, this happened in March 2000. This was just the precursor to many Post Offices being closed completely and / or the actual postal business sold to private enterprise.  These were operated as a Licenced Post Office, either as a stand-alone business or in conjunction with, for instance, a news agency (another vanishing business) or a convenience store. Hard to image the local hotel would change its name to the Convenience Store Club Hotel.

The sale of the St Kilda, Albert Park and Balaclava Post Offices.

The Age, March 1, 2000. p. 33 from newspapers.com

The clock had been removed by December 2007, the date of the earliest images on Google Street View but it appears the Post Office was possibly still operating at that time and until around 2009. In November 2009 the St Kilda  Post Office and adjoining building, were put up for sale again and were sold for $4.75 million to a developer, who has since built units around the historic building. (3)

The St Kilda Post Office, without the clock, but with a For Sale sign in November 2009.

Google Street View google.com/maps

The clock and the public coin-operated scales (a story for another day) which were also outside the St Kilda Post Office, are remembered fondly by a Vanished Victoria team member who grew up just up the street from the Post Office.  The loss of the clock is symbolic of the loss of Government service and services  - there are often no longer convenient Post Offices, which these days could be a hub for helping people navigate the on-line world which they need to survive such as using a MyGov account for Centrelink, Medicare and the Taxation Office. For people with poor or non-existent computer skills and without a family member to help them, trying to access useful information on-line is a nightmare.

Footnotes
(1) Port Phillip Heritage Study - https://www.portphillip.vic.gov.au/media/fdnnxqvn/vol-1-section-6-part-1.pdf; ots, Punks and Punters: A History of the Hotels in St Kilda and South Melbourne by Becky Aizen.(St Kilda Historical Society, 2004) - on-line here https://skhs.org.au/hotels.htm; name change of the Hotel - The Argus, April 7, 1892, read here.
(2) The Herald, July 2, 1929, see here.
(3) St Kilda's former Post Office sells https://www.realestatesource.com.au/st-kildas-former-post-office-sells-for-475-million-to-asian-apartment-developer/