BEECHWORTH’S landmark post office will stop providing mail services in two weeks, nearly 150 years after it opened.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The towered building on the corner of Camp and Ford streets will open for the last time as a post office on Friday January 18.
An Australia Post spokeswoman said it would be a smooth transition to another outlet, a former shop at 12A Camp Street near the Empire Hotel.
“We are pleased to confirm that the Beechworth Post Office will reopen at its new location on Monday, January 21,” she said.
It anticipated relocating before the end of 2018, but the spokeswoman indicated alterations to the new premises had blown out that schedule.
“We would like to take this opportunity to thank the community for their patience while we worked through construction delays, and look forward to welcoming customers to our new post office,” she said.
Two car parks outside the outlet will adopt 15-minute limits and a third will become a mail pick-up bay.
Short-stay parks in front of the existing post shop will be altered to have longer limits.
The current Beechworth post office was built in 1870, predating its Albury counterpart on the corner of Dean and Kiewa streets by ten years.
“The style dominated designs in this department for over 20 years,” it declares.
The future use of the building, which was leased by Australia Post from a North East landlord, is unclear.
The Border Mail was told yesterday that the landlord had yet to be officially notified of the date of Australia Post’s departure.
Indigo Council mayor Bernard Gaffney said he hoped the building would continue to have an inviting use.
“It’s the most photographed building in North East Victoria, it’s iconic to Beechworth, so we would like a business there that’s interested in the history and heritage and culture of Beechworth,” Cr Gaffney said.
“We would certainly want it to be retail or something similar that could be used by the community.”
Beechworth bed and breakfast owner Heidi Freeman said she remained upset at Australia Post’s handling of the issue and had raised her concerns in a letter to the organisation’s chief executive Christine Holgate.