Folio: Lloyd Shield

Victoria’s Colonial Post Offices – A Photographic Study of Surviving 19^th Century Post Offices in Victoria, Australia.

A brief historical perspective (Jenny Colman)

In 1851 Edward Hargreaves announced the discovery of gold in New South Wales. The burghers of Melbourne were so disturbed by an exodus of fortune hunters from Victoria that they announced a reward to anyone who could find a payable gold field within 200 miles of Melbourne. A fortnight after Separation (1 July 1851), two separate discoveries of Victorian gold were proclaimed. 

The reverberations of these discoveries continued to be felt for over 50 years, and many townships which owed their initial existence to the precious metal went on to become major supply centres for outlying communities, as the gold was worked out and the land opened up for farming. Postal services soon followed.

Initially housed in rude structures, often part of an existing business, the post offices provided an important service to the townships and monies were soon spent on suitable permanent buildings which reflected the status of the town. 

Over 2,000 postal services were established in Victoria before the end of the 19^th century. Some existed only for a short time, some were replaced by other, larger, offices, and a number simply died out as people moved away. Of the 1,615 postal services which were operating on 1 January 1901, fewer than 300 of them are still functioning today. 

During the heyday of Victoria’s gold rushes, substantial amounts of money were invested in impressive public buildings, including post offices. Over the past 120 years, first the P.M.G., and then Australia Post, have divested themselves of many of their former post offices.A small number of the just over 100 buildings photographed for this project still perform their original function, others now serve different businesses or have been converted into private dwellings. Sadly, fewer than 20 have any heritage overlay.

The project (Lloyd Shield)

The original vision was modest: to practise using a large format (LF) camera. The choice of subject was easy. Flemington Post Office, standing majestically since 1890 on an acutely angled street corner nearby. An iconic post office, it was the flagship for Victoria in the 1982 Historic Post Office series of 7 stamps. The former Fitzroy North Post Office was the obvious next subject. The tipping point was reached, and the project was conceived: To photograph post offices in Victoria built during the reign of Queen Victoria.

The naive assumption was that there would be only 20 or 30 survivors. However, a pattern emerged as, progressively, the heritage listed icons were photographed. Large format photography is visually conspicuous, requiring a tripod, a large camera, in this case a beautiful Cherrywood and brass-plated metal instrument, with the photographer disappearing from time to time under a dark cloth. This spectacle attracts attention from passers-by, commonly on the obverse side of middle age, and whose fathers or grandfathers almost invariably had one of those devices. The benefit from this connection with spectators was that they would often ask a question: “Have you seen the old post office in town x or suburb y’’? Soon the tally became 70. 

Serendipitously I was put in contact with Jenny Colman, a maven of Victoria’s postal service history, and the number to photograph grew to over 100. Built by the end of the 19^thcentury, and primarily used as a post office, were the only inclusion criteria initially but exceptions were granted. Jack River (1909) was included as a rare example of a surviving small regional post office. Others were excluded if modernisation of the façade obscured the original personality of the building. 

The images were not meant to be environmental portraits or streetscapes. They are portraits of the architectural personality of some of the finest pieces of 19^th century public infrastructure in Victoria.

The method of capture, the full frame contact printing retaining the imprint of the film holder as a border, and the toning technique, were used not to replicate 19^th century images but to create the feel of an earlier time; to establish, in a contemporary image, a connection with the era when the subject was youthful.

Using a LF camera and 4 x 5 inch sheet film dictated many obvious and some less obvious aspects of the final product. The time-consuming nature of LF photography meant that shooting dozens of images from multiple photographic points of view was not practical. The imperfections that sometimes plague LF photography were both a strength and a weakness. Either way a unique image was created. The aim was to capture the essence of the subject. 

No attempt has been made to enhance environmental detail. At all stages the emphasis has been on the architectural and aesthetic aspects of the built form. Modern streetscape detritus, such as cars, overhead wires and signs, was eliminated from the frame as much as possible at capture. Inevitably there were failures. A downside to contact printing full frame has been the inclusion of unnecessary visual elements, such as expanses of road and sky. Availability of a greater selection of lenses may have helped. But the intended subject, the post office, always dominates.

This project was an interesting journey of discovery and fulfilment: More experience in the pitfalls of LF photography, visiting unfamiliar Victorian country towns, and working with Jenny Colman.

The reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901) coincided with literally a golden era in the Colony of Victoria. The structural remnants of this period are an outstanding legacy of architectural and building history, no better exemplified by Victoria’s remaining 19^thcentury post offices. 

Main photograph above: Echuca: 2011. 4 x 5 silver gelatin, thiocarbamide toned contact print (scanned). Opened 1879.

Lloyd Shield is a Melbourne-based photographer who commenced serious photography in 2000 when he saw the potential for this to be a fulfilling retirement activity. 

He completed an Advanced Diploma of Photography in 2005 and it was during this 4 year part time exercise that he was introduced to the magic of large format photography and darkroom printing.

Architectural and industrial heritage, the urban landscape and the natural environment have evolved as his almost exclusive subjects.  

He enjoys the connection and contemplation afforded by large format photography and traditional darkroom printing and has also found satisfaction in collecting and refurbishing or restoring pre-1900 large format cameras. Construction of wooden lens or lens-less large format cameras has been an enjoyable complementary activity.

He is actively involved with and has benefitted greatly from the companionship and sharing ethos of the large format photography community in Victoria.

Jenny Colman has had a long-standing interest in and detailed knowledge of Victoria’s colonial era postal service history. She was Secretary of the Geelong Philatelic Society from 2011 to 2020.