Post Office Paddock Estate, Preston

Pender, Beauchamp, Wilcox St, Murray Rd & Central Avenue

The Post Office Paddock Estate offered allotments of land between Murray Road and Wood Street from the late 1880s.This estate was part of a huge upsurge in land sales at the time, marketed as ‘the heart of Preston’.

The estate would have been named after the prominent building on the northern corner of the estate, Wood’s General Store and Post Office.   Sales took place between August and October in 1888 boasting frontages to High Street and Plenty Road, ‘and the grand avenues running between these two famous main thoroughfares’.

The allotments were £10 deposit with the balance payable at 3, 6, 9 & 12 months with 6% interest.

Tram routes ran along both boundaries, and prospective buyers were promised only a 3 minute walk to either Preston or Regent railway stations which were planned to be in operation in the following year.

‘Railway and Tramway communications are on the eve of realisation. And the long neglected but beautiful health giving northern suburb of Preston will speedily take one big leap to the fore as a favourite residential suburb’    ‘Unparalleled excellence in this popular and rising suburb’.   Luncheon was offered in a marquee. Drag and conveyances were due to meet the trams at Clifton Hill terminus to assist people travelling from other suburbs, from 1.30pm on the days of the sales.

1st sale between Murray Road and Beauchamp Streets including Central Avenue (18 Aug 1888)
2nd sale between Pender and Beauchamp Streets (25 Aug 1888)
3rd sale between Pender and Wilcox Streets (13 October 1888)
4th sale between Pender and Murray unsold lots (20 October 1888)
Auctions. The Herald (Melbourne, Vic: 1861 – 1954) Saturday 26 May 1888, p 4 Advertising.
The Argus (Melbourne, Vic: 1848 – 1957) Tuesday 9 October, 1888 p4
Sands and McDougall’s Melbourne and Suburban Directory 1864- 1974. [Microfiche]. (1974).
Melbourne, Australia: Sands & McDougall. Carroll, Brian & Rule, Ian (1985).
Preston: an Illustrated History. Preston: City of Preston.
Post Office Paddock, Preston [cartographic material]. Melbourne: s.n. State Library of Victoria. Available online.