History Notes - early Post Offices
History Notes
Another week has passed and we are more than half way through April. Next week will be Anzac Day once again and time to remember all those who went to war so that we could live a peaceful life. Each year we pay tribute to those who have served in the forces even though we may not have known them – grandfathers, great grandfathers, great uncles and uncles – we owe them so much, so make sure you think of them next Tuesday.
A couple of weeks ago I may have misled readers with the paragraph about a family looking for a connection with an aboriginal family here. No one picked up the error until Nancy Carter saw it and got a friend to ring and let me know. I will attempt to get it right next week.
This month I am enjoying the photo of the old Barraba Post Office on the Calendar – it is a lovely clear photo taken by Percy Williams and prepared for the calendar by Brian Coote. It is going to be hard to part with this calendar at the end of the year and we only have a couple left in the museum.
The first postmaster in Australia was appointed in 1809 and the service grew from there. Tamworth established it’s first Post Office in January, 1840, and the service extended to Barraba a few years later when citizens brought the mail back to town when they returned from business in Tamworth or further down the line.
The first office in Barraba seems to have opened on 1st July, 1851, early postmasters included Abraham Cohen and A.A. Adams who was appointed on 1st April, 1853 with a salary of fifteen pounds per annum. Mr Adams resigned in March, 1854, as his partner had died and he was living on “Gineroi” near Warialda. The post office closed after the departure of the Adams family as there was no one able to take on the business.
On 1st April, 1856, Henry Edwin Williams, storekeeper, became Postmaster. Unfortunately, he resigned at the end of the year due to ill health and left the district. The next postmaster was Mr Dan Sinclair who began on 1st April, 1857, with sureties, Edward Newton and John Cameron. A year later Mr Sinclair had left his 19-year-old brother to do the work at the post office.
However, both Sinclair brothers had left the district by October, 1858, and Catherine McKid was looking after the post office until Dan Sinclair returned from his cattle drive to Melbourne. In August 1871, Dan Sinclair resigned and appointed his brother James Sinclair as Postmaster.