Timeline 

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When Liverpool Council was first incorporated in 1872 it occupied a rented house in Macquarie Street. Council purchased a block of land on the corner of George and Moore Streets in 1874 but it wasn't until 1881 that a Town Hall and Council Chambers was built there.

This building was extended in the early 1920s and again in 1939 to meet the needs of the growing population.  In 1957 a Civic Centre in Moore Street replaced this collection of buildings and Liverpool Library was established in the old Council Chambers.

By the 1980s both the Council and library were outgrowing their inadequate accommodation.

Liverpool's population had trebled since 1957 and demands on Council's services had grown enormously.  It was decided to build a new council administration centre on Hoxton Park Road. The site was part of 40 acres (17 hectares) of land originally granted to Maria Lock, an Aboriginal woman, in 1832.

Maria was the best student at the Parramatta Native Institution, the daughter of Yarramundi and came from the Hawkesbury area.  Maria married Robert Lock, the carpenter at the institution, and the land was granted to Robert Lock in trust for Maria as she was not entitled to own land because she was a woman.

The $5.1m administration building was partly funded by the sale of the property in Moore Street, though part of the site was retained for a new library.  Nettleton Tribe Architects designed both the administration building and the library.  The administration building which had been designed to last Council for at least 15 years was opened in August 1987.  It incorporates classical elements such as a portico and columns but in a thoroughly modern manner.

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From post office to one-stop shop

The building was previously occupied by Liverpool City Council's CBD office and built as Liverpool's post office.  It was opened in 1964 by Margaret Whitlam, wife of the then member for Werriwa and then Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition, Gough Whitlam. New post offices had been opened at Fairfield in 1962 and Cabramatta in 1963 and Liverpool's post office continued to serve the growing city of Liverpool until 1992 before postal services were transferred to the Westfield shopping centre.

The old post office, which had been built in 1880, stood on the corner of Macquarie and Moore streets, adjacent to the new building.

The rapidly expanding suburban area around Liverpool as well as Liverpool's growing importance as a commercial centre meant the old post office could not cope with the increasing demand for services. The 1880 post office was demolished in 1968 to provide space for an extension to the new building. The extension did not go ahead and the site is now occupied by parking and landscaping.

In 1995, as part of a project to revitalise the Liverpool CBD, the redundant post office was bought by Liverpool City Council and converted into a one-stop shop for council business. Council had moved to new offices in Hoxton Park Road in 1987 and there was need to have a presence in the CBD. The CBD office is now an important part of Council's ongoing commitment to provide quality services to its ratepayers.

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From 1872 to present day

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