History Notes - Barraba PO story
History Notes
A busy week ahead for society members with some visitors due on Friday for a social gathering and of course some members have attended the Bingara opening of a new part of their museum on Saturday.
The usual monthly meeting on Tuesday went off well with an interesting donation of an item re the 1864 flood – hopefully it will be in next week’s notes.
Now to continue with history of the post office from 1871 when Daniel Sinclair appointed his brother, James, as Postmaster. Unfortunately, this arrangement did not last for very long as Daniel wrote to the department from Barraba in February 1875, advising that his brother had died and that he was acting in his place temporarily.
Jane Elizabeth Sinclair, widow of James, was appointed postmistress on 22nd February, 1875. Her sureties were Myles Hagan and G.B. Barton. This arrangement only lasted a few years as a telegraph office was opened in Barraba in 1878 with William Harris in charge. John Banfield succeeded William Harris on 24th November, 1878 and promptly wrote to the department asking that the Telegraph Office and Post Office be amalgamated.
The telegraph office was, at this stage in premises next to a Hotel, and Barraba residents sent the department a large petition to the department protesting about the site. This may have also been because Mrs Sinclair was a widow with a large family to support and her only income was the postal salary.
However, eighteen months later on 20th April, 1880, John Banfield was appointed Post and Telegraph Master of the amalgamated offices. H.E. Williams was his assistant and received 2/6 per week. The Postmaster himself received 185 pounds per annum plus commission on the sale of stamps. The office was still in rented premises and paid 20 pounds per year rent. Although we are not told in the history where the Post Office was conducted it seems that it was the Commercial Hotel as the rent was paid to Richard Thame.
On 5th March, 1885, Mr E.W. Connolly was appointed postmaster, succeeding Mr A.J. Thorpe who had been acting postmaster for several months after John Banfield left Barraba and his wife and three children. There is no further information on Banfield in the records although his wife and family lived in Barraba for many years.
It was during the time of Mr Banfield that it was decided to erect a Post and Telegraph Office and a site described as Allotment 5, adjoining the Courthouse, was selected. The building was to have two rooms for an office and a residence of four rooms with a kitchen and pantry for the postmaster. Neither a bathroom nor laundry were included.
William Lee’s tender was accepted by the department of works on 13th January, 1882. His tender was 2,100 pounds to be erected in a year. The building was occupied on 20th November, 1882. The postmaster asked for a bathroom and laundry to be erected and finally they were erected about 1890.
There were various problems with the Post Office building – extensions in 1901 of the office to the side veranda alignments and then the ceiling was in danger of collapsing in 1903 and 752 pounds were outlaid on repairs.
The telephone exchange building was added in 1909 and then there were major alterations to the front of the building in 1926/27 and the steps and columns that some of us remember were added.
In February, 1981, I visited the G.P.O. in Sydney and I have the dates, sureties etc of the postmasters from 1851 to Mr Blackwell in 1909. Some of these notes are not typed but they will be and there should be a copy at the museum in a couple of weeks.