Spring into artworks at Macaria

Spring Exhibition at Local Art Gallery

The Alan Baker Art Gallery in Macaria has launched a new exhibition for Spring 2019.

The exhibition has three themes:
1. Local Landscapes
2. Flora
3. A Model Wife: A Model Life.

1. Local Landscapes

Alan Baker's local landscape painting captured The Oaks and the surrounding area. Baker loved painting en plein-air with the breeze blowing in his face so he could feel the air around him and take in the environment.

Alan Baker landscape artworks at Macaria 2019 (I Willis)

2. Flora

The exhibition displays some of Alan D Baker's prolific flower artworks in his representational style.

3. A Model Wife: A Model Life.

Alan Baker's wife Marjorie, an artist in her own right, was his model, muse and wife. This exhibition investigates the role of the artist's model.

Alan Baker artworks of his wife Marjorie at Macaria 2019 (I Willis)

The exhibition also highlights the role of Rita Lee, one of Sydney's top artist models, who regularly worked with renowned artist Norman Lindsay. There is work by Lindsay on display.

The exhibition is part of the Unlock Camden open day at the Alan Baker Art Gallery at Macaria in John Street Camden.

Out and about in Cootamundra

The HN blogger was out and about in Cootamundra recently in the New South Wales Riverina. The town has been immortalised in the song 'Cootamundra Wattle' by John Williamson where he sings about the flowers in July.

The Post Office on the corner of Cooper and Wallendoon Streets Cootamundra designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet in 1880  (I Willis 2017)

The town was originally settled in the 1860s when gold was first discovered in the area.
The post office building shown here was designed by colonial architect James Barnet in 1880. The Australian Heritage Database describes it

The building reflects well the characteristics of Victorian Italianate architecture and its clocktower is a superb focal point in the town centre. The building is two storey and built of face brick with stucco dressings and stucco to the tower. Decoration includes stucco to window arches, and imposts and cornices; there is a dentil course to the eaves of the main roof and across the tower. A verandah has an iron roof and paired timber posts. The building's main roof is hipped and clad with corrugated iron. Of four storeys, the clocktower is the post office's major feature.

The town centre is an interesting place to wander around and the HN blogger discovered this Art Deco Style shopfront in Wallendoon Street near the Post Office in the Norfolk Building.

The Art Deco Style shopfront from the Interwar period is located in the Norfolk Building in Wallendoon Street near the Post Office. 2017 (I Willis)

The Norfolk Building that the shopfront is located in is dated 1889.

The Norfolk Building with Art Deco Style shopfront in Wallendoon Street near Post Office 2017 (I Willis)

The Norfolk Building is listed on the Cootamundra Heritage Inventory as a building of local significance under the 2013 Cootamundra Local Environment Plan Heritage Schedule. The heritage inventory lists over 140 buildings of interest in the town area.

The Cootamundra Herald (14 July 2014) reports:

Plans for the building were drawn up by his brother in law, architect TD Morrow.  Mr Burgess purchased the land on which the shops stand from the then Bank of Australasia (now Custom Accounting). The construction was completed in October of 1899, with locally-sourced labour carrying out the majority of the work. Falconer Bros made the bricks and they were laid by Ford Bros (although the contractors were named as Sorenson & Ramburg of Sydney). McBeath & Co supplied the timber. Plasterer was Mr Grinrod and T Fisher did the painting, while GH Bundock asphalted the front footpath.

Learn more about Cootamundra: 

Cootamundra Heritage Inventory 2013 LEP

Australian Heritage Database Cootamundra Post Office

Norfolk Building Cootamundra Herald 14 July 2014

Learn more about Cootamundra  at Australian Heritage

Camden Post Office, NSW

Camden Post Office

135 Argyle Street, Camden. NSW

Lot 2  DP 193308

Camden Post Office NSW c2013 (Google Images)

History and Description 

Warmington and Ward note the original Camden Post Office dates from 1882 in the era of Colonial Architect James Barnet, and that this early core was buried beneath Edwardian additions (under the aegis of architect Walter Vernon), which have been dated at 1898 (the post hall, mail and service rooms, quarters), and 1910 (telephone exchange). However, the original building is still visible from some viewpoints, albeit concealed from Argyle Street by the later addition. The brickwork of the rear single-storey section is different in colour (darker) to the brickwork on the front two-storey section, and the roof of the rear section is corrugated galvanised steel sheeting.

The post office occupies a prominent site in Argyle Street, the main shopping precinct. It has a broad alleyway to its immediate north-east, with its north-east entry apparently designed to develop a diagonal reading, common in Federation composition.

The post office is an example of a Late Victorian (1882 core by Colonial Architect James Barnet) and Federation Free style (1898, 1910 additions by New South Wales Government Architects Walter Vernon and George Oakeshott), and is, therefore, a composite building with the original post office typology compromised. The Federation Free Style envelope includes the breakfront postal hall added around the original building, plus the later 1910 telephone exchange. (Australian Heritage Place Inventory)

Condition and Use 

Maintains its original use as a post office.

The building is in good condition.  (State Heritage Inventory)

Heritage Significance 

Camden Post Office, the original component of which dates to 1882, with later works the most substantial of which date from 1898, is of historical significance. It is located in a historic centre which dates from the earliest years of settlement in New South Wales, and is of considerable importance in terms of early Australian developments in wool in particular, following the original land grant to pioneer John Macarthur in 1805. The first post office operated locally from about 1841. The current post office, while associated with the comparatively later history of the town, is still of nineteenth-century origin, with its establishment and subsequent development reflecting the needs of postal services in Camden. Although an evolved building physically and architecturally, it remains evidently a historic postal building. Its prominent location in the main town strip of Argyle Street also enhances this aspect of significance.

Aesthetically, Camden Post Office, although a composite building, is significant for its strong streetscape presence, with a handsome façade and detailing to Argyle Street. More broadly, the building also contributes to the historic character of central Camden and features in tourism promotional material celebrating the town's diversity of architectural styles (Australian Heritage Places Inventory)

Heritage Listing 

Camden LEP I13

State Heritage Inventory

Australian Heritage Places Inventory Record Identifier: 106176

Read more

Camden Post Office on the Australian Heritage Places Inventory Click here 

New South Wales State Heritage Inventory Click here
Camden Heritage List Click here