The clock on the Post Office
celebrated its 100th birthday in 2010.
It was installed
some 17 years after the post office, at a cost of 1300 pounds, after
a campaign of public fund raising. According to a report in the
Daily Telegraph, there was a real desire to have the clock
manufactured in Australia but it was not economically viable to do
so, and it was made by Gillett and Johnson in England. An official
unveiling ceremony was conducted in July 1910, and a “toast was
heartily drunk.” A plaque was provided by the building firm J &
T Gunn which read: Launceston Centenary Clock and Chimes 1806 –
1906. Erected by public subscription in the reign of Kind Edward VII
to commemorate the first centenary of the City of Launceston in
Tasmania.”
The clock has been a landmark of
Launceston ever since. I remember trips to the city when I was a
child and the sound of the clock was second only to the wonders of
the Myer escalators in my inventory of “the wonders of the big
city.” There was some fierce debate around 2011 as to whether the
clocks chimes are “too loud,” and should be silenced at night.
You can read an opinion in the negative at
http://tasratepayers.blogspot.com.au/2011/07/launceston-post-office-clock-to-silence_09.html.
I have to confess that I don't know whether or not the clock is
still keeping tourists awake at night but I can vouch for the fact it
still chimes during the day – I'm the figure scurrying across
Wellington Street trying to get back to work before it strikes one!!
