Presented to a meeting of the Avoca Historical Society on 16 April 2005.

Imagine you are in NSW and the date is 1 July 1848. Coming from Buninyong towards us at Burn Bank is a pack-horse carrying the first official mail to a post office located in what is now Pyrenees Shire. From 1848 to now is an enthralling history of the local post.

How did I become involved in collating the history of local post offices? It really is a marriage of two of my interests: stamp collecting and local history. I am a member of the Maryborough Stamp Club and the Carisbrook Historical Society. About fifteen years ago I was inspired by another local philatelist to begin a collection of local postal cancellations of the area, which covers the current Central Goldfields Shire. I imagined there would be about a dozen post offices within this area. My research has revealed 46! Undaunted I also collected cancels and information for post offices that had existed within the boundaries of municipalities adjacent to Central Goldfields. The boundaries I set are encompassed by a line drawn between St.Arnaud, Bendigo, Malmsbury, Creswick, Elmhurst, and back to St. Arnaud. So far I am up to 156 post offices!

Within my area is the northern half of Pyrenees Shire, but even this has 22 post offices.

For each post office identified I have researched the following details: a brief history e.g. dates opened and closed, local population figures, significant events; a full list of the postmasters and postmistresses there; examples of postal cancels used; and a photo of the post office when it was operational. For most post offices this takes one page, but many have two pages of information. My display is assembled on Microsoft Publisher© program, with scanned images, and printed on semi-gloss photo paper.

What are the sources of information? The major reference books are Freeman & White The Numeral Cancellations of Victoria (2001), Australia Post’s History of Postal Services in Victoria (1988), Purves Victoria: The ‘Butterfly’ and ‘Barred Oval’ Cancellations (1965), and The Postal History of Post Phillip District (1950). Other resources used are the John Webster Collection of Victorian Post Offices, the listings of Postmasters of Victoria produced by John Waghorn, innumerable local and family history publications, local historical society collections, and local people. The State Library of Victoria and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria both have wonderful reference libraries. There has been enormous goodwill and support from hundreds of people with this project. The collection of post offices in Central Goldfields is almost complete and is in display format (70 A4 pages) and on CD-ROM. For the surrounding Shires the display (130 pages) will be almost complete by November this year. Neither will be ever totally complete unfortunately: it is an impossible task.

Cancels used on local mail have changed over time. Pre-1850 there were no postage stamps in use so assorted NSW postal markings were used. These included ‘PAID’, ‘PAID AT BURN BANK’, etc. On 1 January 1850 postage stamps were introduced here. They were inscribed ‘Victoria’ and this was six months prior to the Port Phillip District of NSW becoming the colony of Victoria! Each post office was given its own distinctive canceller, and its own separate number. For instance, Burn Bank was allocated cancel ’23’. You can see this on the illustration. Other post office numbers of this route were Ballan ’21’, Bunnenyong ’22’, Horsham ’24’, and Wimmera ’25’. The cancels used from 1850 to June 1851 are termed ‘Butterflies’ because of their shape. The cancel comprises a central barred figure, a ‘V’ (for Victoria) below, and the post office number above. The Burn Bank cancel is rated as rare.

From 1851 to 1856 a new cancel design was adopted because the ‘Butterfly’ cancel did not have enough space for larger numbers. The new design was the ‘Barred Oval’ cancel. It comprised an outside oval shape with bars, and in the centre was a large ‘V’, for Victoria, with the post office number above this. Avoca post office was opened on 5 September 1854 and was allocated number ’94.’ This is also rated as rare. To indicate that a letter had been received at a post office an oval back-stamp was adopted. The example shown is from Crowlands. The words ‘CROWLANDS’ and ‘VICTORIA’ form the oval. Within it is a crown over ‘JA*15 1860’, which indicates its receival at Crowlands post office on 15 January 1860. From 1856 to 1912 yet another cancel was adopted. This is commonly called the ‘Barred Numeral’ as it incorporates a circular barred figure with a large numeral within it. In the example shown the numeral is in two lines ‘MC over 78.’ This is from Homebush Lower, number 1178, opened on 1 February 1880. It is rated as scarce.

Published by kind permission of the author.