MELBOURNE - GPO : AUSTRALIA

*Location:

   General Post Office
   Elizabeth & Bourke Streets
   Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
   LL: S 37.81396, E 144.96329

Site locator map  or 
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*Player:

   (unknown)

*Contact:

   Centre Management Office
   Melbourne's GPO
   323-332 Bourke Street
   Melbourne, VIC 3000
   T: 3/9663 0066   F: 03/9639 2170
   E: admin@melbournesgpo.com

*Schedule:

   Following hour strike at 3, 6, 9 and
   12 o'clock, one of 28 tunes (4 drums
   of 7 tunes each) is played on 8 bells.

*Remarks:

   Hour bell + Westminster (Cambridge)
   quarters + 7 bells to make an octave.
   All by John C. Wilson & Co., Glasgow;
   hour & quarter bells cast in 1870,
   other 7 in 1888.  Building vacated by
   PO after being badly damaged by fire
   in 2001; restored as a retail centre.

*Technical data:

   Mechanical-automatic chime of 12 bells
   Pitch of heaviest bell is D# in the middle octave
   Transposition is not applicable
   Keyboard range:     ----  /    ----  
   The arrangement of tones and/or semitones
     is non-standard; see Remarks above.
   The whole instrument was installed in 1890
     by the maker cited in Remarks above
   Year of latest technical information source is 1979

*Links:

An old drawing of the GPO bells shows them hung dead on timber frames with external clock hammers.  From the date, it must have been made before the clock chime was enlarged to form the present instrument.

A page from a Melbourne building Website gives a capsule history and has a clickable photo of the clock tower.

The history of the building, with an early photo

Color photo of the clock tower

Where this work lies in the sequence of output of miscellaneous bellfoundries, in this region and in the world.

Ranking among all Asia and the Pacific Rim chimes by pitch (weight).
Ranking among all Asia and the Pacific Rim chimes by size (number of bells).
Ranking among all Asia and the Pacific Rim chimes by year of completion.

Index to all tower bell instruments in Australia.

*Status:

   This page was built from the database on 10-Sep-07
   based on textual data last updated on 2007/09/10
   and on technical data last updated on 1990/12/28

Explanations of page format and keyboard range are available.

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