postoffice

I don't think he liked dogs. I could see him chasing them away before he took the photo.

DannyM8 Libel!

The hats suggest about 1905-10 to me.

Several people are holding similar cards/envelopes. They might just be acting Post Officey for the camera, but maybe something was happening?

The unlinkable PRONI historical map viewer puts the PO on the Promenade, about here in Streetview.

Looking more closely, the house at right here is still standing ("CRAIGMORE"), and counting windows, the PO is No Longer Standing.

* Constructed in 1891, Bundaberg Post Office is a significant regional postal facility and an integral part of the city’s historic central civic and administrative precinct, stemming from its rich history as one of Queensland’s great coastal ports. * l Bundaberg Post Office is an example of the work of Charles McLay under the aegis of Queensland Colonial Architect, George Connolly. * l The substantial frontage and landmark tower embody prosperity and future confidence in the city of Bundaberg, supported by successful sugarcane, mining and horticultural industries dating back to 1870s. Function * Bundaberg Post Office belongs to the second generation of Australian post offices built between 1870 and 1929. These offices generally incorporate separate components for the telegraph and postal functions in addition to quarters for the postmaster, and in this case integrated government offices. * Notably, the office space was occupied by Crown Lands Department Office and French Cable Co. * French Cable Co. began exchanging messages through the Vancouver via New Caledonia undersea cable in 1893, which terminated at the first floor of the post office. Building description * The building’s Victorian Italianate frontages are a fine representative example of large post office buildings of the period. * The six-level clock tower is set 45 degrees to the bulk of the building and its angle diagonal to the road alignment is of strong artistic merits. * A double-height arcade screens the principal street elevations. The ground floor arcade columns are square chamfered components with a suggestion of a Tuscan capital carried in the molding sustained across the stilted arcades on the ground floor of each flanking pavilion. * The upper level contains a verandah with sculpted cornice, Romanesque cast iron columns, and plain masonry pedestals interspersed with a cast iron lace balustrade. * The external walls comprise rendered brick with ruled ashlar finish to principal street elevations, rusticated banding to projecting pavilions and the clock tower, and tuck-pointed face brickwork to rear elevations. There are also elaborate cast iron wall vents and cement moldings. Source: www.discoverbundaberg.com.au/downloads/file/98/bundaberg-...

John Palmer, a theatre owner from Bath, believed that the coach service he had previously run for transporting actors and materials between theatres could be used for a countrywide mail delivery service, so in 1782, he suggested to the Post Office in London that they take up the idea. He met resistance from officials who believed that the existing system could not be improved, but eventually the Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Pitt, allowed him to carry out an experimental run between Bristol and London. Under the old system, the journey had taken up to 38 hours. The coach, funded by Palmer, left Bristol at 4 pm on 2 August 1784 and arrived in London just 16 hours later. Impressed by the trial run, Pitt authorised the creation of new routes. By the end of 1785, there were services from London to Norwich, Liverpool, Leeds, Dover, Portsmouth, Poole, Exeter, Gloucester, Worcester, Holyhead and Carlisle. A service to Edinburgh was added the next year and Palmer was rewarded by being made Surveyor and Comptroller General of the Post Office. Australia's first mail coach was established in 1828 and was crucial in connecting the remote settlements being established to the larger centers. The first mail contracts were issued and mail was transported by coach or on horseback from Sydney to the first seven country post offices – Penrith, Parramatta, Liverpool, Windsor, Campbelltown, Newcastle, and Bathurst. In 1863 contracts were awarded to the coaching company Cobb & Co to transport Royal Mail services within New South Wales and Victoria. These contracts and later others in Queensland continued until 1924 when the last service operated in western Queensland. The lucrative mail contracts helped Cobb & Co grow and become an efficient and vast network of coach services in eastern Australia. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, a mail coach was a stagecoach built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. Mail was held in a box at the rear where the only Royal Mail employee, an armed guard, stood. Passengers were taken at a premium fare. There was seating for four passengers inside and more outside with the driver. The guard's seat could not be shared. This distribution system began in Britain in 1784. In Ireland, the same service began in 1789, and in Australia, it began in 1828. Royal Mail coach services reached their peak in the later decades of the 19th century, operating over thousands of miles of eastern Australia. In the 1870s Cobb & Co's Royal Mail coaches were operating some 6000 horses per day and travelling 28,000 miles weekly carrying mail, gold, and general parcels. Some Concord stagecoaches were imported from the United States and made in New Hampshire by the Abbot-Downing Company. This design was a 'thorough-brace' or 'jack' style coach characterized by an elegant curved lightweight body suspended on two large leather straps, which helped to isolate the passengers and driver from the jolts and bumps of the rough unmade country roads. Soon Australian coach builders using many of the Concord design features customised the design for Australian conditions. Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_coach