By Heather Wade and Kerry Davis, 2024.
31 Hayward Street, taken March 2022.
James Rogers was the first owner of the land, Lot B21, at the south western corner of Hayward and Gibbs Street.[1] The progression of occupants on the site is not quite clear, but it was claimed to be the site of the first butcher’s shop in Harvey.[2] David Charles Taylor, a shoemaker, was the occupant, probably around 1895[3] and he was listed in the 1900 Brunswick Road Board Rates Book paying rates for a house in Harvey and a shop in Mornington.[4] By September 1904, he was a Boot Importer and Bootmaker in Victoria Street, Bunbury.[5]
Robert Alexander took over from David Taylor and conducted his saddler’s shop on the front verandah, the rest of the house was Harvey’s first Rectory.[6] Alexander was first mentioned in the Post Office Directories in 1908. By 1919[7] he had built and moved his saddlery and harness business to the corner of Becher and Gibbs Street.[8]
L-R Draper, a wooden house on the corner of Hayward and Gibbs Street where it is presumed that Robert Alexander conducted his saddlery business on the front verandah, then Gibbs Street, and Driscoll’s Produce store on the north side of Gibbs Street. Photo courtesy of Memories of Harvey Facebook.
It is not known when the house was demolished but for many years the land stood vacant. In an interview, William (Scottie) Robertson said that the vacant land was used when the circus came to town.[9]
The vacant block on the corner of Hayward and Gibbs Street prior to 1957. Photo courtesy of Harvey Districts Historical Society.
When the circus came to town the vacant lot was used. Photo courtesy of Kerry Davis.
On 11 March, 1957 the Harvey Post Office was opened on the site, a two story building with the telephone exchange upstairs. The exchange was no longer in use by the 1970s when the dial up telephone changed from using an operator. The building remained a Post Office until 1996 when the Post Office was relocated to Uduc Road, and the building was sold. [See ‘Harvey’s Post Offices’ on this website. Also note that Harvey had a telephone exchange from May 1915 and it was housed in the Post Office. When the Post Office changed location from Harper Street, to Hayward Street, so did the exchange, until it became redundant.]
The Harvey Post Office operated on this site between 1957 and 1996.
The Shire of Harvey; The House of Emisha Brook, a business offering bridal, formal wear, suit hire, cakes, photography & vehicles; and Inner Centre – a health studio, used the premises at some time. It is currently a private residence.
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[1] AC Staples, They Made Their Destiny – History of Settlement of the Shire of Harvey 1829 – 1929, Shire of Harvey, Bunbury, Western Australia, 1979, p. 386.
[2] Harvey Waroona Mail, 9 September 1955, p. 2.
[3] AC Staples, They Made Their Destiny, p.386.
[4] Brunswick Road Board (now Shire of Harvey) Rates Books.
[5] Bunbury Herald, 5 September 1904, p. 4.
[6] Harvey Waroona Mail, 9 September 1955, p. 2.
[7] Bunbury Herald, 23 July 1919, p. 6.
[8] Harvey Waroona Mail, 9 September 1955, p. 2
[9] Interview with William Robertson, interviewed by Kerry Davis, 1990, Harvey History Online Collection.