As a group, these buildings contributed significantly to the development of a 20th-century image for Gladstone, and remain important public landmarks.

The town's first post office was gazetted on 1 July 1854, opening in premises at the corner of Goondoon and Yarroon Streets (later the site of the Commercial Hotel).

In the late 1850s and early 1860s postal services between Gladstone and Gayndah, Maryborough and Rockhampton were established, and to the Calliope Goldfields in 1864.

On 28 November 1864 the overland telegraph service was opened to Gladstone, linking the town with Brisbane, Rockhampton and the hinterland.

The depression deepened, and in November 1931, the Federal Works Director for Queensland, James Orwin, recommended to Canberra that urgently required new post offices at Gladstone, Muttaburra, Hughendon and Isisford be erected under relief scheme funding, using day labour.

By late January 1932, Mr D Gallogly had been engaged as foreman of works and the Post Office half of the 1870s building had been sold for removal.

When the new building was completed, the old Telegraph Offices were removed, leaving a frontage of 64 feet (20 m) to Goondoon Street for future development.

[1] The new post office was a single-storeyed rendered brick building with symmetrically arranged entrance porches on either side of the front elevation.

[1] The new post office was opened officially on 23 July 1932, when members of the Gladstone Town Council, Chamber of Commerce and Harbour Board were taken on a tour of the building.

By the mid-1990s, changes in postal handling techniques made the building redundant to Australia Post, and it was sold to private enterprise in 1997.

The interior has been gutted since, in preparation for an internal refurbishment as offices, but the principal street facades survive reasonably intact, and the prominently positioned building, along with its clock tower, remains an integral element in the Gladstone townscape.

[1] The principal facade of the building is to Goondoon Street with two flat roofed porches either side of a protruding gable.

The northern porch is entered by a flight of steps; aluminium shop fronts and doors give access to the building.

As one of a group of employment-generating public buildings erected in Gladstone during the interwar period, (including the 1929 Commonwealth Bank Building, the 1934 Town Council Chambers and the c. 1940 Court House), the former Post Office is significant in illustrating a more positive impact of the interwar economic depression on regional Queensland.

The prominently positioned former Post Office with clock tower retains a reasonably intact street exterior, and remains an integral element, with landmark status, in the Gladstone townscape.

The prominently positioned former Post Office with clock tower retains a reasonably intact street exterior, and remains an integral element, with landmark status, in the Gladstone townscape.