An army of volunteers is reopening a post office in a NSW Snowy Mountains town today after more than a year without any postal services.
Key points:
- Dalgety will be getting a new community postal agency
- The township's post office closed in December 2021
- The new service, run by volunteers, opens today
Dalgety's Australia Post office, which was a commercial operation, closed in December 2021, citing pressures from the pandemic.
Since then, locals have had to drive 40 minutes north to pick up their mail and access postal services.
Dalgety District Community Association president Vickii Wallace has been campaigning for the post office to reopen its doors ever since.
"People in town have not had mail delivery [and] they've been travelling all the way into Cooma to get their mail," she said.
Ms Wallace said the lack of street mail delivery in the township had kept many of the residents isolated.
"It hasn't been easy for anybody," she said.
Reopening as a community postal agency, the service will be subsidised by Australia Post but can only operate if it is run by volunteers.
"I'm really keen to hear from extra people," Ms Wallace said.
"The [extra] money that we get from doing this service will be going back into community projects, so it's a massive win-win for everybody."
The new postal service will be run by the Dalgety District Community Association, with locals able to pick up mail and parcels from the Dalgety Showground lot on Campbell Street.
Australia Post thanked the community for its patience while the new agency was established and acknowledged the new operators for "providing the important service to the community".
The new Dalgety Community Postal Agent will be open 11am to 2pm on Saturdays, and 4pm to 6pm Tuesdays and Thursdays.