* Gill Post Office, Melbourne 1856 (?) {1868} Loc? [PR]

Gill, S.T. (1818-80; English/Australian)
Post Office, Melbourne
Lithograph, 1856 (?)
Acquired, 1868 (gift of John Pascoe Fawkner?)
Present location unknown

The image recorded as acquired for the Melbourne collection in 1868 was probably an impression of the lithograph published by James Blundell in 1856. The SLV holds another impression (reproduced below), recorded as donated in 1934; and also the version made for Victoria Illustrated (1857), engraved by Tingle after Gill.

Melbourne’s first post office, a bark hut in Collins Street, was superseded by the Bourke Street structure shown here, and then in 1867 by the much grander General Post Office, on the corner of Bourke and Elizabeth Streets (now a retail centre).

See also Ham (T.) Post Office, Melbourne 1841 {1868} SLV [PR], also donated in 1868, possibly also by Fawkner.

[photo: lithograph in SLV (H12598)]

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

Refer SLV catalogue: H12598 (1856 lithograph, donated 1934; as shown here) and 30328102131660/42 (the engraving from Victoria Illustrated, 1857)

For Melbourne’s post offices, see e.g. Brown-May & Swain Encyclopedia of Melbourne (2005), pp.559-60 (entry by A.Harkness)