Cue Government Buildings and former Post Office illuminated at night
Discover Cue  •  Austin Street

Government Buildings

Post office. Police station. Courtroom. Mining administration. More than 130 years later, much of this remarkable complex is still doing the job it was built to do.

Government arrives with the gold rush

Cue became important so quickly that government had to build for a regional capital.

Within only a few years of the first major gold discoveries, Cue had become the administrative centre of the Murchison Goldfields. Government services that had begun in tents and temporary buildings needed a permanent home.

The result was this extraordinary group of attached public buildings fronting Austin Street. Designed by the Public Works Department under Government Architect George Temple Poole, with architect Alfred Edward Cox supervising work in the district, the complex was mostly completed in 1896 and expanded through 1897 and 1898.

At a glance
Construction: 1895–1896
Major additions: 1897–1898
Architectural style: Federation Arts & Crafts
Material: locally quarried weathered granite
Town clock installed: 1898
Heritage status: State Register
Police & Court: still operating today
Almost every arm of government

This was the administrative engine room of the goldfields.

The complex was far more than a post office and courthouse. It gathered many of the government services required to administer an enormous and rapidly expanding mining district.

Communication

Post & Telegraph Office

Mail and telegraph services connected remote Cue with the rest of Western Australia and the world. The complex also included a Savings Bank and accommodation for postal staff.

Mining administration

Warden & Mining Registrar

Mining rights, leases and disputes generated an enormous administrative workload. The Warden's Office and Mining Registrar were central to managing the Murchison Goldfield.

Law & order

Court & Police

The Police Station, police quarters, holding cells and Warden's Court placed policing and justice at the heart of the same government precinct.

Historic photograph of the Cue Government Buildings complex
Built to make a statement

A government precinct in the middle of a frontier town.

The long group of one and two-storey buildings was built from local stone with corrugated-iron roofs, tall chimneys, verandahs and the distinctive gabled forms of the Federation Arts & Crafts style.

The scale tells you how government viewed Cue in the 1890s: not as a temporary mining camp, but as a major regional centre expected to administer an enormous area of Western Australia.

Remarkably, the precinct has retained a high degree of authenticity and continues to provide government and community services more than a century later.

Cue Post Office and clock tower in 1933
The former Post Office

The clock was a promise from Sir John Forrest.

When Premier Sir John Forrest visited Cue for the opening of the railway in 1897, he promised the town a public clock. The Post Office was altered to receive a clock tower, and the clock was installed in February 1898.

The former Post Office has since found a new life as the Cue Community Resource Centre and Visitor Centre. Visitors can step inside the same historic building for local information and community services.

And look up: part of the old clock mechanism can still be observed from inside the CRC — a working piece of nineteenth-century Cue sitting above a very modern community service.

Still ticking

In 2026, Cue got its clock back.

The town clock had stopped working despite several attempts over the years to bring it back to life. In 2026, persistence paid off and the historic mechanism was successfully returned to operation.

It means the clock tower is no longer simply decorative heritage. More than 125 years after it was installed, Cue can once again look to the old Post Office and see its historic town clock keeping time.

Still doing the original job

The Police Station and courthouse remain in use today.

Few heritage precincts can claim this level of continuity. The law-and-order side of the Cue Government Buildings is not a museum reconstruction: police and court functions still operate from the historic complex.

Cue Police Station

Policing from the same precinct.

Police have operated from this group of buildings since the gold-rush era. The police station and associated quarters remain part of the working government complex.

Cue Magistrates Court

A nineteenth-century courtroom still hearing cases.

The former Warden's Court is now used for Magistrates Court sittings. Cue remains listed by the Western Australian courts system as a court location at the Austin Street police complex.

A courtroom that made headlines

The Murchison Murders came through Cue.

One of the most notorious proceedings associated with the Cue courthouse was the 1932 inquest into the disappearance and murder of Louis Carron, part of the case that became known nationally as the Murchison Murders.

John Thomas Smith — better known as “Snowy” Rowles — was brought to Cue in custody. The hearing ran for days and drew witnesses from across the Murchison and as far away as New Zealand as police built an extraordinary circumstantial case from burnt remains, dental work, jewellery and personal possessions.

At the conclusion of the Cue proceedings, Rowles was committed to stand trial for murder. The Supreme Court trial itself was later held in Perth, where he was convicted and sentenced to death.

The case became one of Western Australia's most famous murder investigations and remains closely associated with both the Cue courthouse and the nearby Old Gaol.

Heritage that still works

Cue did not turn these buildings into a museum. It kept using them.

The former Post Office now welcomes residents and visitors through the CRC. The town clock is ticking again. Police continue to operate from the precinct. Court still sits here. That continuity is one of the strongest reasons the Government Buildings remain such an important part of Cue.

Visit the precinct

Start at the former Post Office and look up.

The Government Buildings occupy the northern end of Austin Street. The former Post Office is now the Cue Community Resource Centre and Visitor Centre at 72 Austin Street, making it the easiest place to begin exploring the complex.

Get Directions Visit Cue CRC
Look for
Former Post & Telegraph Office
1898 clock tower
Visible clock mechanism inside the CRC
Magistrates Court
Police Station and quarters
Original local stonework and chimneys
Continue exploring

Keep following Cue's government and justice story.

Across Austin Street

Old Gaol

Continue the law-and-order story through Cue's six-cell gold-rush gaol and the Snowy Rowles connection.

Explore the Old Gaol  →
Local government

Old Municipal Chambers

See the 1896 building where generations of Cue councillors conducted the town's business.

Explore the Chambers  →
Historic Cue

48 Hours in Cue

Make the Government Buildings one of the key stops on a walk through Cue's gold-rush streetscape.

Plan 48 hours  →