The Bunyip Post Office has a rich history, one of importance then and still important now.
Today, when you walk into the Bunyip Post Office, you may meet folk like postmaster Ricky, or trusted assistants Amber, Joe, Wendy, Sue, Tracey, Katherine and Svavani. Even Henry the Bunyip enjoys sitting nearby on the bench.
But have you met Casper?
Not the friendly ghost — but the sweet little puppy Henry the Bunyip has.
You may see Casper, especially on Saturdays.
Now we travel back in time…It is the 1960’s and 1970’s The building looks very much the same, but back then it was not Australia Post.It was known as the PMG — the Postmaster-General’s Department.It remained that way until 1975, when the telephone and telegraph networks split into two separate commissions.
Around this time, Bunyip’s manual telephone exchange was permanently replaced by an automated system.The old exchange switchboard, as we knew it, was finished.Sadly, there was no more chit chat or quietly knowing who rang who.My memories tell me of many local women working there, ladies like dear Trish, who later worked as a postal assistant too.The boys who worked the night shift names I remember — Keith, Wayne, and another Keith. Looking after the exchange was an important job, especially through the night. The boys rotated their duties, spending one week on night shift at the exchange and the next delivering mail around Garfield.The telephone was so important then, and it is thanks to Mr Alexander Graham Bell (1847–1922), inventor of the telephone, that today we are able to hold little smart phones and watches in our hands. How times have changed.Back in those days, mail delivery was not all that different to today, although there are now many more parcels than actual letters.When I was much younger, a stamp was quite cheap.In 1967, a postage stamp cost just 5 cents.At the front of the post office, tucked into a little alcove near the wall, there was a stamp vending machine.You could place in a 2 cent or 5 cent coin and hey presto — out would come a stamp.This was very handy when the post office was closed, as you could buy your stamp and then post your letter straight away in the nearby posting slot.
Mum always said, “Punch the Bundy and get a stamp.”
For me, one special memory will always be our Post office Box number 5.
Turning that little key and opening the box to see if letters had arrived was always exciting.If you are holder of post box number 5 let me know as it has a long rich history too Growing up,
I had a lot of connection to the Bunyip Post Office.
Over the years, the postmasters at Bunyip included Brooker, Gay, Beavis and Andrews and more.
At Christmas time, my mum would take over as postie while Roy Ledger took his family away to Phillip Island for their annual holiday.
Mum’s postie bike was a blue English Moulton bicycle. Quite a special bike that served her well
She would pedal up and down those Bunyip hills delivering the mail in all kinds of weather.Each day, her refreshment was a 20 cent pint bottle of milk with a silver foil cap she received from Stan the milkman what ever street he was delivering too,
Mum and Stan would have a quick chat and then she would go on her way with a cold bottle of milk,
Another great memory I have connected to the PMG days was cleaning the public telephone boxes.
Back then there were three phone boxes that our family cleaned.
Like many country jobs, they were handed down through the family — first Mum, then Don, and later me.
We had our little hearth brush and our cleaning cloths in a bucket on our bikes handlebars.
One phone box stood outside the post office itself. Another was outside the milk bar, where the vet is today.
And the one that felt the biggest adventure for us kids was the phone box outside the old Golden Fleece service station.
That one involved quite a bike ride. Going up that hill passed the cemetery to the highway.
Back to the milk many folk will remember the little bottles of milk that sat under the hedge at Bunyip Primary School.
You either loved them or loathed them.
Roadside delivery, Mail delivery by roadside was a great service. Out to Tonimbuk or Iona, One lady many will remember was Brenda, who sadly passed away this month. Brenda travelled hundreds of miles delivering mail in her beloved VW Beetle.
As they say the mail must get through, I was told recently that my dear mum once dropped her bicycle in the middle of Hope Street and mail spilled everywhere.
A funeral procession from St Joseph’s had to stop while Mum gathered the letters and carefully placed them back into her basket. Yes — the mail must get through.
These days, the Bunyip Post Office is still an important part of the town.
People visit to collect parcels, buy stamps, pay bills, do banking, purchase Tattslotto tickets, pick up little gifts, or perhaps a few lollies as well.
Some things may have changed over the years, but the Bunyip Post Office still helps keep the community connected.
Thank you Bunyip Postoffice
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