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POST OFFICE (FORMER)

Other Name OLD POST OFFICE Location Brown Street, BRANXHOLME VIC 3302 - Property No 7050 File Number 62 Level Stage 2 study complete

[1/2] 23281 Post Office Branxholme [2/2] 23281 Post Office Brown St

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The surviving former post office and its attached residence in Brown Street, Branxholme is only one of the many places in the township that have served this function. A conventional single-storey weatherboard structure, it was built by Alex Black of Macarthur in 1930. The post boxes were located under the small verandah. The first postmaster was Jabez Best. Other members of his family followed him and this became a pattern with the post office throughout its history. The Kemp and Gough families were typical. Other important postmasters and postmistresses were: Claire Allen, Frank Lott, Andrew Bell, Stephen Murtagh, William Hogan, and Patrick Nash. The post office also provided a savings bank opened in 1873, a telegraph service, initiated when it was located at the railway station in early 1880s, and from 1904 a telephone exchange. The manual exchange located in the 1930s post office was not automated until 1971. The post office was closed recently and the service is now provided from the nearby Junction hotel. The buildings remain in good condition but their integrity has been compromised by the relocation of the post boxes.

How is it significant?
The former Branxholme post office is of historical significance to the township of Branxholme and to the southern Grampians Shire.

Why is it significant?
The former Branxholme post office is of historical significance as the best surviving reminder of the critically important communications service provided by the post office and its many staff to the community for nearly 150 years.