Post Offices in Victoria
John Waghorn from Whittlesea Historical Society amazed us on September 3rd with the sheer volume of Ms work on the history of Post Offices in Victoria.
Over the last 40 years John has researched the story of the development of Post Offices and has built a formidable collection of data (30 filing cabinets) full of lists of Post Masters and Post Mistresses in all areas, the dates they commenced duty and relinquished the position.
Every Post Office has a Manila folder devoted to it.
John has also prepared typed and bound books with the names of these people in alphabetical order so that a researcher can look up a particular name and see a record
of service of that person.
In the early days, if a small community wanted a Post Office they would apply to the central Post Office to have one supplied. If there was enough mail to the district the request would be granted and a Post Master would be provided. This person was chosen by prominent people in the area, perhaps a magistrate or Bank Manager. The Post Master would be a person of some substance, often a teacher or a blacksmith who usually conducted his own job in addition to being Post Master.
In some cases, for instance in Ballarat in 1ST] there were several Post Masters in a few days as the pay was very small (just 5 pounds per year) for a very time consuming and responsible position. No wonder men did not last long in the job.
If the community was too small or transient for a permanent Post Office there was system of “loose bag” which was a mailman or contractor who moved along a route and a local person was deputised to receive and distribute the mail.
In the early days, various buildings were used as Post Offices; private homes, schools, railway stations and general stores in small towns, where a small area in a corner was devoted to the Post Office.
John brought along with him material on our own area. A comprehensive list of Postal workers in Doncaster and Templestowe and the dates of their tenure.
We are indebted to John for his information on this interesting topic and compliment him for his industry in researching so thoroughly these records. Some day we hope that the museum or another suitable venue will benefit from this body of work.
Source: 2003-09 DTHS Newsletter
Templestowe Post Office
July 1, 1860, Templestowe Post Office commenced postal services to the residents of Templestowe.
Source: 1970 08 DTHS Newsletter
No comments:
Post a Comment