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The Gympie Town Hall is a heritage-listed town hall at 2 Caledonian Hill, Gympie, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Department of Public Works (Queensland) and John James Clark and built in 1939 by Marberete Company Pty Ltd, Department of Public Works, and Joseph Jew. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 12 August 2011. == History == The Gympie Town Hall was opened in 1890 on land reserved for this purpose in 1883. It was designed by Clark Brothers, which won competitions for proposed town halls for Brisbane and Gympie in 1884 and Warwick in 1885. Of the Clark Brothers' prize-winning designs for Queensland town halls, only that for Gympie may have been realised, and its construction was supervised by Hugo William Du Rietz in the late 1880s. It was extended in 1938-9 by Brisbane architect C H Griffin.〔 Gympie (initially Nashville) arose after the discovery of gold in the Mary River district in October 1867. The new goldfield established Queensland as a significant gold producer and contributed much needed finances to the young colony. Thousands of people arrived at the Gympie goldfield in the months after the discovery and a fledgling settlement emerged. In a year the alluvial gold had been exhausted and shallow reef mining commenced, followed from 1875 by deep reef mining. During 1881 mines began yielding large amounts of gold marking a new era of wealth and prosperity for Gympie as an intensive phase of underground reef mining began, facilitated by the injection of capital into mining companies for machinery and employees.〔 As Gympie evolved from a hastily established mining settlement, the early makeshift structures of the 1860s gradually gave way to more permanent and substantial public and private buildings from the mid 1870s. Gympie was gazetted as a town on 26 January 1880 and in 1883 a reserve for a town hall was created. A competition for the design of a Gympie Town Hall was conducted and in 1884 Clark Brothers (comprising John James Clark, architect and his brother George, an engineer) were named as the winners. Other buildings designed by Clark include the Treasury Building in Brisbane, the Central railway station in Brisbane, and Townsville railway station. Clark had a long career, won many design competitions and produced many other notable buildings in Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia and New Zealand.〔 Gympie Town Council proposed to erect its town hall on land at Nash's Gully bounded by Mellor Street and Caledonian Hill which was to be reserved for this purpose. In July 1888 the Council requested that the Department of Public Lands grant them the Deed of Grant for the land as they proposed to erect a Town Hall upon it, but the Department of Public Lands agreed to issue the Deed of Grant only after the erection of a town hall on the site. In August 1888 a proposal that Gympie Town Council borrow £5,000 for the erection of a Town Hall was defeated by 40 votes. Subsequently the Municipal Council erected a portion of the Town Hall, namely the left wing and tower, built of brick at a cost of £1,266. Its construction was supervised by local architect, Hugo Du Rietz and its builder was Joseph Jew. The town hall was opened by William Smyth MLA for Gympie on 4 March 1891 and the first council meeting held in the new chambers took place on the same day. In June 1891 a Deed of Grant to the Council of the Municipality of Gympie for 3 roods 22 perches "as a site for a town hall and no other purposes whatsoever" was granted.〔 Following its continued growth, Gympie was declared a city in 1905. As gold production declined to cessation in , Gympie transformed into the service centre for its highly productive agricultural district noted for dairy and fruit-growing. As part of this evolution, the town centre shifted from upper Mary Street near Commissioners Hill to lower Mary Street closer to the Gympie railway station, butter factory and fruit cooperative.〔 By the mid- to late-1930s the Gympie City Council was considering completion of its town hall. Concurrently, a post office located closer to the centre of town was sought. During 1937 the Gympie Chamber of Commerce called for a branch office in a central position in Gympie as the current post office located at the top of Commissioner's Hill was quite removed from the main business centre. The Gympie City Council wanted the branch located in the Town Hall where adequate accommodation for the purpose could be made available in the proposed extensions to the building. Bernard Corser, the Member of the Australian House of Representatives for Wide Bay, made representations to the Commonwealth's Posts and Telegraphs Department. Additionally, the acting Prime Minister, the Right Hon Dr Earle Page, also discussed the establishment of a branch post office in Gympie with the Postmaster-General in June 1937. Subsequently tenders for the lease of a building for a branch post office were advertised in the Gympie Truth and Gympie Times. Two tenders were received that were regarded as unsatisfactory so approval was given for the lease from the Gympie Town Council of premises at Gympie for a period of 10 years with an option for renewal of five years.〔 Consequently, when additions to the Gympie Town Hall were designed by C H Griffin in 1938 the design incorporated a new post office for Gympie on the ground floor. The addition included a reception hall on the first floor and additional offices on the ground floor. An original drawing by J J Clark shows that Griffin used the Clark Brothers' plan as the starting point for his design of the town hall extension in 1938. Griffin's plan provided for new vestibules on both floors and a new staircase. The upper floor houses a reception hall to the east of the upper vestibule. The existing frontage was remodelled in harmony with the new section. Instead of the Victorian ornamentation originally specified he gave the building's exterior a more modern appearance. A garage located adjacent to the town hall on the Caledonian Hill frontage was also designed as part of the project. The tender to construct was won by Marberete Company Pty Ltd of Brisbane and the work took seven months to complete. In addition to the town hall building a free-standing garage was built to the east of it on the town hall reserve.〔 The Gympie Town Hall's additions were officially opened by the State Treasurer (Mr Frank Cooper) on 21 October 1939. The cost of the addition and renovation was £9,668. This amount was covered by a loan of £7,235 with a Queensland Government subsidy of £1,463 plus £970 advanced from general rate revenue.〔 The completion of the Gympie Town Hall in 1939 was part of a wider pattern of civic building that took place during the second half of the 1930s when numerous town halls were constructed across Australia as an expression of civic pride when the economy was once again on a more secure foundation after the Great Depression. Many Queensland country towns erected or remodelled civic buildings. The Queensland government played an important role in facilitating many of these projects, by subsidising expenditure by shire councils on new buildings or remodelling their existing premises. As a result, more than 20 shire and town council buildings were erected during 1938-39 and six shire halls were remodelled. In the last two years of the 1930s, more than £177,000 was spent on new shire and council halls and nearly £20,000 was outlaid on alterations to existing buildings.〔 Town halls of varying design and dimension are landmarks of Australia's cities and suburbs, shires and towns. They have been important as social venues and focal points for their communities and also for the administration of local government. The Gympie Town Hall was such a venue. The accommodation of the Gympie East Post Office on the ground floor of the new section of the Gympie Town Hall between 9 May 1939 and 26 July 1967 gave it further important social function.〔 Between 1977 and 1982 internal alterations to the Gympie Town Hall were undertaken with money obtained through a debenture loan approved by the Queensland Treasury. These included architectural work (probably new joinery); mechanical and electrical alterations to the auditorium; internal telephone extension relocation and switchboard installation; internal painting of the ground floor; reconstruction of the WWI remembrance alcove; new floor coverings; office equipment; and glass and timber panel partitions.〔 In 2009 the Gympie Regional Council recommenced meeting in the Gympie Town Hall, after many years of meeting in the former Queensland National Bank building in Channon Street. The remainder of the building continues to be used as office accommodation for council staff.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gympie Town Hall」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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