Post Office – One Mile, Gympie

The One Mile Post Office was located on the corner of Harkins Rd and Graham Street on what is now known at 11 Graham Street.

A letter written to the editor of The Gympie Times on 5 May 1883, and signed “Not a Mole” talks about the movement of the One Mile Post Office after a “small flood in the One-Mile which necessitated the removal of the Post Office furniture from the temporary Post Office, the present one being some eight feet higher”……”This opportunity was seized upon by miner Smyth and another to get the Post Office shifted into Graham street”.

The letter goes on to confirm “Mr Hamilton appointed a committee of four to decide on a site; this committee could not agree, and the question was referred back to Mr Hamilton, who then advised a public meeting to settle the question”……”Mr Smyth was at that meeting, and the only contention was that the office should not leave the mail road. Mr Smyth finding that there was no possible chance of carrying his idea of the Graham street site moved that the Post Office be placed in “Pat Lillis’ Paddock”……”Then Mr Martin Noonan proposed and Mr Tyrell seconded that the post office be placed on Pound Hill, and the amendment was carried unanimously”

5 May 1883, p. 3, The Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette

Many anonymous letter writers to The Gympie Times expressed opinions or dismay relating to the business activities and decisions of the postal authorities. Here, a letter from 31 January 1898, signed by “Red Tape”, about improvements to the mail deliveries in Gympie….

A letter written by a “Business Man” to The Gympie Times, in 1905, points out the “serious and unjustifiable action on part of the Postmaster-General or other official in the removal of the telegraph instrument at the One Mile Post Office and substitution of the telephone for the transmitting and receiving of telegrams”….

The One Mile Post Office route as published on 9 January 1912 in The Gympie Times…

9 January 1912, p. 3, The Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette

Mrs N. Tobin sadly passed away in 1912 at the One Mile Post Office. Mrs Tobin was the postmistress at the One Mile Post office for three years and the mother of seven children. Her husband Mr Tobin had passed nine years prior.

8 August 1912, p. 3, The Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette

Henry Alder, who was a messenger at the One Mile Post Office, had an unfortunate accident in November 1924, aged 18 years. He was riding a bicycle down the hill of Red Hill Road, Mt Pleasant and when he was nearly level with a sulky, he struck the shaft of the sulky. It penetrated the lower part of his abdomen and passed through his body to the spine. He was conveyed to hospital by the ambulance in a critical condition. One report stated “there is little hope for his recovery”. Henry Alder survived and went on to become a storekeeper Henry ran his mixed business store (fruiterer, cakes, confectionery, newsagent, post office, and more) at Mt Pleasant for 42 years, selling to Mr and Mrs Window, and retiring in 1969. Henry lived until 73, passing in 1979.