An Article on the South Brisbane and Fortitude Valley post offices in the 1880s
Brisbane Courier (Qld), Thursday 16 December 1886, page 5
SOUTH BRISBANE AND VALLEY POST OFFICES
Owing to the absence of the necessary accommodation at the General Post Office for the additional letter-carriers required for the extension of the delivery in the suburbs of Woolloongabba and Booroodabin, which has been contemplated for some time, arrangements have been made for a delivery by letter-carriers from the local post offices. Letters, etc, are now delivered throughout the whole of Woolloongabba twice a day by carriers, leaving the Stanley-street office at 8 40 a.m. and 2 p.m., instead of once a day from the General Post Office. We are requested to state that it would greatly facilitate the speedy delivery of letters if the residents of Woolloongabba would instruct their friends to add “Woolloongabba" to the address on their letters. When streets intersect both South Brisbane and the suburb beyond, as do Stanley and Vulture streets, the postal officials cannot tell whether a letter addressed simply to such streets is for the city or suburban delivery.
In addition to increasing the frequency of the deliveries, arrangements have been made for promoting the efficiency of the South Brisbane office in other directions. All correspondence posted there has hitherto been sent to the chief office for despatch; this of course could not be done without involving some delay; but now mails for the Southern and Western districts and for Sydney, overland, are made up at the Stanley-street office, closing at 7.45 p.m. each day, and are sent by the early train from the railway station close by, and transferred to the travelling Post Office at Oxley. Direct mails closing at the latest moment are also sent to the Logan District, to Cleveland, and the offices en route, as well as to Mount Gravatt, the Eight-mile Plains, Boggo, and other offices on the south side of the river. Mails to and from the General Post Office have been increased to five times a day. Residents in South Brisbane who desire to obtain an earlier or more frequent delivery than can be provided by letter-carriers, will be able to obtain private lock-boxes on application at the local office, as arrangements will be made for these boxes as soon as the extent of the requirements in this direction is known. To provide this additional convenience the staff of the South Brisbane office has been increased by the addition of a postmaster and two letter-carriers.
Similar arrangements have been made in Fortitude Valley for the benefit of Booroodabin, and letters are now delivered twice a day throughout this division from the Valley Post Office, the business of which is carried on in temporary premises opposite the new post and telegraph office being erected in Ann Street. The same remarks as to the delivery and address of letters apply here, and it would be an advantage both to the officials of the post office and to the residents if letters were addressed to Booroodabin for streets and places within that district. Many of them are now curiously addressed to Bulimba and Breakfast Creek, and find their way to the post offices at those places. Private lock-boxes will be provided at the Valley office in the same way as at South Brisbane, and will probably be found advantageous to businessmen, as mails are now exchanged with the chief office four times a day.
