Steel-framed and built of brick, it is an ‘interwar rectilinear Stripped Classical styled building’. Note the ‘projecting V-shaped steel-framed windows’, steel grilles, pressed cement block dado walls, and the sculpted metal symbol of the former Commonwealth Postmaster General’s Department.

Regional telecommunications needs kept expanding. The design and quality of the 1939 Telephone Exchange reflects their importance. However, from 1964, operations were gradually transferred to a new centre and the Exchange was sold in 1995.

In the Telegraph Office (1857-8, 83 Ryrie St), the ‘cornerstone’ former Post Office (1890) and the 1939 Telephone Exchange, Geelong has a collection of three outstanding communications buildings adjoining one another. They show successive technological advances as well as architectural styles. All are grand buildings of their day.