Historic Post Office Photographs - Part 1: Koo Wee Rup Swamp and surrounding areas

As part of the 2021 Casey Cardinia Heritage Festival, Patrick Ferry gave an interesting talk about local history resources in the National Archives’ collection. A key resource Patrick highlighted was series B5919 – Master Set of Post Office Photographs (1901 - ). This series of historical photographs was originally assembled by Australia Post’s museum in Melbourne and later transferred to the National Archives. The photographs have been digitized and are available via “Record Search” on the National Archives website: www.naa.gov.au. 

We recorded Patrick's talk and you can see it here on our You Tube channel,   https://youtu.be/vfJjZ2iYSo0

In this post we will show you the Post Offices on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp and the towns bordering the Swamp - Lang Lang to the south; Nar Nar Goon, Tynong, Garfield and Bunyip to the north and Cardinia at the eastern end. Not every Post Office was photographed, for instance the Cora Lynn and Modella Post Office are not the collection. In the second post we look at the Post Offices in the old Shire of Cranbourne (see here). In the third post we look at the Post Offices from the old Shire of Berwick, located along the Highway or Railway line (see here).  In the fourth post we look at the Post Offices from the old Shire of Berwick, located in the Hills (see here). 

Many of these photographs were taken in the late 1960s and they are an interesting snapshot of our towns from fifty years ago as some of these buildings are no longer there, some are still in existence but are no longer Post Offices and a few are still being used as Post Offices. The photographs of the General Stores are especially interesting.

Bayles Post Office, 1969.

National Archives of Australia B5919, 149 Item ID 6528489

Bunyip Post Office.

This is an earlier photo than the two below.

National Archives of Australia B5919, 362 Item ID 6528702

Bunyip Post Office, 1968

National Archives of Australia B5919, 362 Item ID 6528702

Bunyip Post Office, 1968

National Archives of Australia B5919, 362 Item ID 6528702

Cardinia  Post Office, 1969

National Archives of Australia B5919, 421 Item ID 6528760

Catani Post Office, 1969

National Archives of Australia B5919, 453 Item ID 6528791

Garfield Post Office, 1969

National Archives of Australia B5919, 720 Item ID 6529062

Iona Post Office

National Archives of Australia B5919, 951 Item ID 9515098

The original Koo Wee Rup Post Office

National Archives of Australia B5919, 15/97 Item ID 5950839

Koo Wee Rup Post Office

National Archives of Australia B5919, 1066 Item ID 9515212

Koo Wee Rup Post Office, again.
Interesting view showing more of Station Street.
National Archives of Australia B5919, 1066 Item ID 9515212

Koo Wee Rup North Post Office, 1969

National Archives of Australia B5919, 1067 Item ID 9515213

Lang Lang Post Office, 1969

National Archives of Australia B5919, 1111 Item ID 9515527

Nar Nar Goon Post Office, 1968

National Archives of Australia B5919, 1531 Item ID 9515674

Pakenham South Post Office, 1968/1969. 

Incorrectly listed as Packenham South at the NAA.

National Archives of Australia B5919, 1654 Item ID 9515797

Tynong Post Office, 1968

National Archives of Australia B5919, 2165 Item ID 9699315

Vervale Post Office, c. 19671969

National Archives of Australia B5919, 2186 Item ID 9699336

Yannathan Post Office

National Archives of Australia B5919, 2378 Item ID 9699528

This post shows the Post Offices on the Koo Wee Rup Swamp and the towns bordering the Swamp - Lang Lang to the south; Nar Nar Goon, Tynong, Garfield and Bunyip to the north and Cardinia at the eastern end. In the second post we look at the Post Offices in the old Shire of Cranbourne (see here). In the third post we look at the Post Offices from the old Shire of Berwick, located along the Highway or Railway line (see here).  In the fourth post we look at the Post Offices from the old Shire of Berwick, located in the Hills (see here).