The Collingwood Town Hall building incorporated many functions in the one project, with a grand hall, a supper room, municipal offices and council chamber, post office, police station and court house, and a mechanics' institute (comprising separate ladies' and gentlemen's library rooms). The opening was held on the 29 March 1887. The clocks in the tower were installed later and were the subject of some debate in September 1887. They are reputed to have been the clocks once at the Melbourne General Post Office which was extended in 1888, but they were in fact ordered from Gaunt & Co, clockmakers, and were to be similar to the clocks at the GPO. Finally ordered in April 1888, and reportedly was on display at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition, and the clock bell was cast by Mears and Stainbank at the Whitechapel Foundry, London, in 1890.
