Lorne Post Office

The first Post Office in Lorne opened on 28 April 1874, under the management of Thomas Mountjoy³, whose annual salary was £10, located at Erskine House. Mail at that time was conveyed twice a week. Telegraph facilities were provided at Lorne Post Office in January 1876.

The Post Office was transferred from Erskine House in 1882, when Alice Fyans was appointed Post Mistress in succession to Thomas Mountjoy. The Post Office was raised from non-official to official status at the time, as Alice Fyans was a permanent officer of the Department. During 1882 she was paid £65 per annum, plus living quarters, fuel and water. The Post Office moved to 62 Mountjoy Parade, the site of Thomas Mountjoy’s house, called Roslin, a village in Scotland, and later renamed Argyll, a county in Scotland.

By 1888, the population of Lorne was approximately 150, and it was decided to provide an official Post Office building, large enough to cope with postal requirements of the district for many years to come. The contract was let on August 18th, 1888, to Joseph Wykes and the building was completed and occupied in 1889. Mary Parkinson was the first Postmistress appointed to this office¹. The building was built by John Pell from Birregurra, referred to as John “Brickie” Pell, according to Garry Smith(5).

Laying foundation stone in 1888. Man on the left of Charles Lamond Forrest (holding a trowel) is Mr John Stirling.

Coach for Birregurra outside Post Office, mail bag drop, c1919

c1919, View of Post Office, Caryina in the background. To right of the PO was Tom Brown’s Newsagency and General Store.

c1920, building was mostly for accommodation, left front room was the Post Office, right front room was the telephone exchange.

1969

Marj Jarratt (Marj Grant) and Bertha Harris at the switchboard

1972

Lorne Post Office in 1986, 104 Mountjoy Parade, after the 1888 building was demolished in 1985.

Post Office among shops under the new Cumberland Resort, shop 3/154 Mountjoy Parade, photo taken 2025

The new Cumberland Resort was built on the site of the old Post Office, deemed to be unsuitable for classification by the National Trust, and so was demolished in 1985.

: Foundation stone for the original Post Office

: Post Office Plaque

: (LHS photo B780)

: Post Office Clock Face

: Post Office Clock Door

: Names of Post Office workers who wound the clock 1888-1985

Doug Stirling² recalls you had to climb a ladder to a manhole and open the door behind the clock on top of the old Post Office and wind the clock manually once a week.

North Lorne Post Office

Located at 35 Ocean Road, North Lorne.

: L & J Griffiths, General Store and Post Office, 1969

: Old Bakery Great Ocean Road Lorne

: Peter and Shane Wheal outside the North Lorne Post Office on the last day before closing on 30 Sept 1972.

Sources:

Mr D M Baker, Post Official Historian, Victoria, Public Relations Section
Doug Stirling 14 Feb 2025 at a meeting of the Lorne Historical Society
John Waghorn, Post Office Historian
Lorne Historical Society Collections, Lorne News, Photos
Garry Smith email March 2025