Cooroy Post Office is a heritage-listed post office at 33 Maple Street, Cooroy, Shire of Noosa, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Thomas Pye and built in 1914 by L. Baldry. It was added to the Australian Commonwealth Heritage List on 22 August 2012.
History
Post and telegraph facilities were available at Cooroy railway station from 1892. The facilities moved from the station to the present site of the Post Office in 1911 when the townspeople and the Australian Government decided to use the building originally built for the chambers of the Noosa Shire Council as a post office. It was leased by the Postmaster-General for this purpose. In October 1911, the Queensland Governor approved the sale of the land to the Australian Government for the purpose of a post and telegraph office at a cost of , with first post master appointed being Mr Campbell. E.G. Chinnery was appointed permanent post master in April 1912. A Morse Code telegraph instrument was installed in the building at the start of September 1912.
The Australian Government called tenders for a new post office to the design of acting Queensland Government Architect, Thomas Pye, in 1913 to be erected alongside the existing building. In January 1914 the contact to erected the new building was awarded to L. Baldry for . Local sawmills supplied the timber. The new post office was ready to open in September 1914, with the building described as "a neat and substantial structure" and the predication that it "should provide ample accommoation for many years to come" (and indeed the post office has been in use of 100 years). In November 1914, a new telephone switchboard was installed, improving the telephone service.
Later works of the 1940s through to the 1960s, included construction of an additional verandah on the southern side of building, and may also have included replacement of original casement sash windows in the front elevation with awning sash windows. Other later works included the addition of a single-storey flat roofed building to the north of the main office area; the sub-floor areas enclosed with cream brick dwarf walls; the rear verandah enclosed to form staff lunch room; and in the 1980s and 1990s refurbishment of the internal office area and upgrade of retail facilities. In 1996 a disabled access ramp and extension to the non-original verandah were installed across the south side of the building; the brick addition on the north side of the building also appears to have been removed by that date.
Description
Cooroy Post Office is at 33 Maple Street, corner of Garnet Street, Cooroy, comprising the whole of Lot 2 RP147678.
Cooroy Post Office, dating from 1914, is located on a gently sloping, regularly-shaped corner site which is defined on the west by the town's principal commercial and retail street, Maple Street. The original post office building is raised above street level and the frontage addresses Maple Street, though the majority of the private letter box bays and rear access is via the Crystal Street frontage. The elevated corner site also allows for some views of the building "in the round". The street corner of the site is marked by a cast iron pillar posting box marked "JS Engineering Co., Brisbane", added at a later date. The site is enclosed by an early timber post and "Cyclone" wire fence and is flanked to the east by the automatic telephone exchange, constructed on the eastern half of the site around the late 1960s. The remaining site area is unbuilt.