North Hobart Post Office

Stamped near the town’s historic commercial center, Tasmania’s North Hobart Post Office has been a landmark and point of pride for over a century. This Heritage-designated building was also once a very generous place to work, as living quarters were provided for the postmaster though personal postage was unfortunately not an additional perk.

The Commonwealth acquired the site in 1903, and the post office was established a decade later. That timing, coupled with its proximity to the accessible capital city of Tasmania, meant it was unfortunately excluded from the pigeon post—a service once relied upon in more remote areas of Australia. Pigeon post stations, set up during the earliest years of the twentieth century, relied on winged letter bearers, who were trained to fly between designated stations, carrying mail in tiny canisters.

North Hobart is not remote, nor is its terrain sufficiently challenging to ever have required valiant post pigeons, whose duties ceased as telegraphs and telephones became increasingly convenient.

However, since the closing of the pigeon post, the number of feral pigeons has increased, and many have nested on or around North Hobart’s post office. It remains unclear whether any are there to seek work or eventual accommodation as postmasters.

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