Christmas mail: Bridgewater locals band together to keep post office

There is a lot of very special people making sure all the Christmas post gets to where it needs to go. And for one town, banding together has kept that service going.

Staying local: Shannon Brown from the Bridgewater Post Office. A group of locals and businesses joined together to keep the service in town. Pictures: Zoe Phillips

IT IS not just elves helping Santa make sure every present and card makes it to the right stocking.

As the volume of post skyrockets in the lead up to Christmas, postal workers across the nation are keeping particularly busy.

It is not a job Shannon Brown imagined she would be in, but the mum-of-two is part of a group of Bridgewater locals and businesses who rallied together this year in order to keep the local post office open.

Shannon took on the role of manager. And there is a certain symmetry in the timing of the group reopening the post office early this month.

“When (the former owners) took over 14 years ago, it was the same time of year. It is a bit crazy, you just think ‘I can’t get all those done’ but you get there and the community has been great.”

Shannon says she and the rest of the group banded together because they did not want to see the service leave the town of about 300 people. The previous owner had put the business on the market due to personal reasons, but as time dragged on and no buyer came forward, the situation came to a head.

“I came in one day and there was a notice that she was going to close the doors,” Shannon says.

Shannon Brown from the Bridgewater Post Office. Picture: ZOE PHILLIPS

“I said ‘We will have a community meeting and see what we can do to save the post office’.

“It is so good to live here and it would have been detrimental to the town — that sense of loss and the town shrinking and losing services, and perhaps losing a bit of hope. I love how the community said we’re not letting that happen and that sense that you can achieve anything.”

Shannon did a six-week course to prepare her for her new role, which as well as handling post also includes services such as banking, passport applications, police checks and land title identification. But she says the community has rallied behind the business in the early days.

“In the last week we’ve taken over, everyone has been in. I feel like I see the whole community, which is fantastic because they’re getting behind us to support us, but definitely the older part of the community really rely on the services here rather than driving to town (Bendigo).”

Shannon Brown from the Bridgewater Post Office. Picture: ZOE PHILLIPS

Shannon says her day starts at 6am sorting mail “and if I can get out of here at 6pm, I’m doing well”. Part of that is because she is new to her job, so a little slower, but she also says it was due to the volume of Christmas mail.

For Maiden Gully postie Peter Clarke, his weeks also become longer as the Christmas rush builds.

The 10-year postal veteran, whose love of motorbikes led him to a job delivering mail, says he will also work on Saturdays to get through the volume of parcels and letters, which he estimates grows by at least 50 per cent (“wouldn’t be double, but wouldn’t be far off”).

“Christmas Day is unreal because it’s over, thank God it’s done. It is pretty exhausting towards the end. That first week of January is the same, still hectic, then it starts to quieten down.”

But he says, he gets to be “Santa Claus every day” — as long as he has the right address. Thankfully, he has a pretty good idea of where mail is supposed to be going, even when when it is addressed incorrectly — the right street with the wrong number, for example. “You have to be pretty smart because a lot of that stuff does come very wrong, or has an old address on it.”

That ability shows how well he can get to know people along the route — even though he doesn’t always get to meet them. For those he does see, if he wasn’t time restricted, he would love to spend more time talking to people along the way.

For Shannon, that is the best part of the job.

“It is a real hub. People stop to get their mail, and they’ll be chatting outside. People come in and have a chat.

“That is a really nice part of it and the part of community spirit.”