The Childers Post Office in days gone by.
Post office duo set to celebrate
by lkidd
9th Oct 2014 5:00 AM
IT IS World Post Day today and the Childers Post Office has a lot to celebrate.
The Universal Postal Union website lists the purpose of World Post Day as creating awareness of the role of the postal sector in the everyday lives of communities and businesses and the contribution post has made to the social and economic development of countries.
Janet and Peter Anderson have owned the Childers post office for more than 20 years after being the first franchisee to purchase it from Australia Post.
The post office has a lot of meaning to the Anderson family and while they didn't know it at the time, Australia Post documents revealed Mr Anderson is related to the first postmaster in Childers, Mr W. Beale.
Mr Beale's son married Mr Anderson's great aunt.
Documents given to the Anderson family upon their purchase of the post office show Mr Beale ran the Childers Post Office from its opening on November 20, 1887, and was paid 6 pounds ($12) a year which was increased to 12 pounds in 1888.
He remained the postmaster until 1890 when he handed the reins over to Lewis Thomas.
But three years later, the post office was forced to close.
Australia Post records indicate the closure was due to either a lack of business or lack of replacement post master.
One year later, in 1894, the post office was reopened with Mr D. H. Robinson appointed as the new postmaster.
Some 100 years later, the Anderson family took on the post office, moving from Toowoomba to Childers to run the business.
Mrs Anderson said she and husband Peter were looking to raise a family in a rural community and saw the post office came up for tender.
At the time, Mrs Anderson was an accountant and Peter was an electrician.
"We liked Childers and Peter's from Childers, he was born and bred here - although we weren't living here at the time," she said.
Mrs Anderson said they knew they could do more with the post office and transformed it to incorporate a gift shop.
She said it was really good owning the post shop while raising their family.
"But there's still that sense of, you own it but you don't really because there's still that sense of ownership by the people because Australia Post is publicly owned," she said.
"But it's been great, it's been fantastic for our family."
Mrs Anderson said they worked from 6am until 5pm.
"That's pretty good for a small business," she said.
With their two girls now getting older and two years spent in the post shop, Mrs Anderson said they were considering their options.
"I think we'll probably hang onto it for a bit longer yet," she said.
australia post post office