For the past 16 years, Wallendbeenians have collected their mail from a former petrol station at the roundabout on the crossroads of the Olympic Highway and Burley Griffin Way.

With a lack of fanfare amounting to almost top secrecy, Australia Post (AP) left leaflets on the counter last week advising that due to the retirement of the owners, the Post Office will close in a fortnight.

“From 1 Februarty mail for Wallendbeen residents will be available for collection over the counter at the Cootamundra Post Office … please ensure you have photo identification available,” the announcement said.

“We will provide a commencement date for a three day a week street delivery service as soon as possible.”

Few of Wallendbeen’s houses currently have a letterbox, and residents will presumably be required to buy and install letterboxes if and when the service is introduced. However there is speculation “street delivery” may mean delivery to a box at one end of a street, rather than house-by-house.

In the meantime Wallendbeenians face a 40km return journey if they want to pick up mail or use other PO services like paying bills.

Australia Post has known about the proposed retirement of the Post Office owners for a number of months, but has made no attempt to communicate with residents other than asking the operators of the village’s only business – the pub – whether they would like to take over, an invitation they declined last year.

“We are committed to retaining a presence in Wallendbeen but have not received any expressions of interest from local businesses wishing to provide postal services,” the announcement said.

Residents were not asked by Australia Post whether whether they would prefer to keep picking up their mail from a post office, and if so whether they would prefer one of several vacant shops in the village’s main street, King Street, rather than the less convenient and more dangerous highway roundabout.

The original post office building in King Street, was  sold off by the federal government to obtain a cash “sugar hit”, regardless of the needs of the community.

Now in private ownership, it is a more substantial and attractive building than the poorly-maintained fibro shack currently used, which has been sold, allegedly to BP, to make way for a large new petrol station and fast food outlet.

It is understood BP intended to include a post office in the new complex, but that negotiations to operate an interim service from a small hut or caravan fell through early in January, and Australia Post peremptorily decided to close it altogether. 

Well-known Wallendbeen resident Marcia Thorburn spoke to the Herald on Tuesday morning as she was picking up her mail. 

She said the least Australia Post could have done was to put a notice up in the window last year asking residents for their views on the post office’s future, and whether anyone was interested in running it.

Another resident who did not want to be named speculated there were a number of people in the village who would have jumped at the opportunity to operate the business, and it would take very little imagination or investment to utilise one or other of the vacant shops in King Street.

“A central point like this would provide a much-needed boost to King Street and be another meeting place, other than the pub, for local residents, ” the resident said.

Ironically, at the same time Australia Post is walking away from a shopfront in Wallendbeen, the NSW government has provided large cash grants to the Cootamundra-Gundagai Council to employ consultants to advise on how to restore and revitalise King Street in a historically sensitive way.

Australia Post apologised for any inconvenience, and said if residents have any questions, they could be answered by an AP representative at the post office on 16 January from 8.30-9.30am.