Westgate Post Office

Provenance

Camera: NIKON D750
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Settings: 58mm · f/9.0 · 8s · ISO 100
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm

The number 225 sits low on the brick facade, WESTGATE raised above the central windows and 1913 marked on the gable below the flag pole. Signed Westgate Post Office but formerly the Annandale Post Office, the building keeps its arched entrance, decorative metal grate, glass doors and three mailboxes, with faint lettering on one window still reading POST AUSTRALIA SHOP. Warm light holds the brick against a black night sky on Parramatta Road at Annandale, vehicle light trails streaking the roadway below.

Edition

Open edition

Open edition
Printed to order, no fixed quantity. Each print is hand-signed by the photographer.

Limited edition
A fixed number of prints exist. Once sold, the edition closes permanently. Each print is individually numbered and signed.

$100.00 AUD

Colour

Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 5 to 10 business days (unframed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.

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In situ

Westgate Post Office at Parramatta Road, black-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Westgate Post Office at Parramatta Road, raw timber-framed print displayed in situ on a wall.

Westgate Post Office at Parramatta Road, glass print displayed in situ on a wall.

01 PROVENANCE

Print datasheet

Title: Westgate Post Office
Series: Parramatta Road
Catalogue: PRO-018
Process: Giclée
Captured: 5 September 2016
Camera: NIKON D750
Lens: 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture: f/9.0
Shutter: 8s s
ISO: 100
Focal length: 58 mm
Paper: Ilford Galerie Smooth Cotton Rag 310 gsm
Paper size: 297 × 210 mm
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Authenticity: C2PA verified provenance →
Recognised by: Highly Commended in Multimedia at the 2016 National Trust of Australia (NSW) Heritage Awards

02 LOCATION

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap

03 THE STORY

About this print

Westgate Post Office stands on Parramatta Road at Annandale, its brown brick facade lit warm against a black sky. The building is signed Westgate Post Office, though it was formerly the Annandale Post Office. The photograph was made at 21:27 on 5 September 2016, when the traffic had thinned and the building was carrying only its own lighting.

A post office is one of the few building types on Parramatta Road put there for the people who live beside it rather than for the traffic going past. The road reached Annandale as a colonial route long before the suburb existed: a track cut by convict labour between 1789 and 1791, named Parramatta Road by 1794, formalised under Surveyor-General Augustus Alt in 1797, and stone-paved by Governor Macquarie in 1811. A steam tram line opened along the road to Annandale in 1883 and was extended to Norton Street at Leichhardt the following year, which is the period when the inner-west suburbs along the corridor filled in. The tramlines came out in the 1920s when the road was sealed for motor traffic. The brickwork stayed, and the building is still signed for the service it was built to carry, under a different name.

04 FROM THE FIELD NOTES

Brown brick facade on Parramatta Road, lit warm against a black sky. The lettering across the pediment reads "Westgate." A date stone near the roofline shows 193-, partially obscured by lichen. An arched entry with decorative iron fanlight sits to the left, glass doors fitted inside the old opening. Louvred windows. A bare flagpole. Moss spreads across the slate roof in pale patches. Headlight trails streak the road surface below.

Brett Patman

The series

Parramatta Road

2017 · 27 photographs

Parramatta Road follows a much older route, used for thousands of years by the Wangal, Wallumedegal, Burramattagal, and Cadigal peoples before colonial adoption around 1789 to 1791. Today it is one of Sydney's main thoroughfares: 23 km of heavy traffic, with used car dealers at the Parramatta end ("Auto Alley") and a mix of historic shopfronts, new apartment blocks, and WestConnex demolition at the eastern end. The series moves between streetscape and individual buildings - 107 Parramatta Road in Annandale (an 1890s Victorian Filigree shopfront with original living quarters above accessible only by ladder), the Marco Polo Motel at Summer Hill, the Olympia Milk Bar in Stanmore, Mario's Meat Market, and shopfronts whose ground floors have been busy for a century while the rooms above have been empty for fifty years.

View all in this series →

05 SIZE GUIDE

Print sizes

The anatomy view shows what this finish is as a physical object: paper margin, mat band, frame depth, acrylic profile. The comparison strip shows how each size sits relative to the others at true scale. Click a size or a finish to update both.