The tiny town of Fingal, in Tasmania’s north-east, has been sending and receiving post for nearly 200 years.
But earlier this year, Australia Post said the post office would have to close unless it could find a suitable new operator, after the previous one moved on.
“I think post offices are kind of like a vital organ in any town,” Fingal resident Hamish Thompson said.
“Without a post office, a town, in my view, kind of ceases to exist.”
Mr Thompson enlisted some of the town’s residents to help him film a campaign video to “help us save the Fingal post office”.
Fingal resident Hamish Thompson out the front of the town post office. (ABC News: Ashleigh Barraclough)
Hundreds of residents of Fingal and surrounding areas lined up outside the post office, forming what they described as the longest queue the Fingal Valley had ever seen.
Maria Kinze, her husband and her son, William Russell, were at the rally, quietly contemplating whether to put their hands up to take over the post office.
Ms Kinze and her family have plans to turn the post office into a commercial enterprise. (ABC News: Ashleigh Barraclough)
Seeing the number of people in attendance convinced them they should give it a go.
Their expression of interest was accepted by Australia Post, which has been training Ms Kinze on the ins and outs of running a post office.
This week, she and Mr Russell began serving customers.
A new home
Fingal no longer has a bank or a pub, so the post office fills those roles.
“It’s a meeting place, it’s where people congregate together, it’s for banking as well as mail,” Ms Kinze said.
“It’s like a lifeline to a lot of people.”
Ms Kinze has been learning the ropes of the postal industry with help from Autralia Post. (ABC News: Ashleigh Barraclough)
Ms Kinze does not have any experience in working in the postal industry.
“My background is in aged care and theatre nursing and then of course being up on the farm as well, so I’ve never done anything like this,” she said.
With help from her family, Ms Kinze plans to restore the post office’s back rooms and turn it into a place to live.
“My husband and myself and my little doggies will move down here, and yeah, I think it’ll be great for all of us,” she said.
The Fingal community fought to keep the post office open. (ABC News: Ashleigh Barraclough)
Planning for longevity
Mr Russell will continue running Primal Pastures, the family farm to the north of Fingal, while his mother helms the post office.
“The post office here in Fingal is also our bank, so whenever we’re doing deliveries or dealing directly with customers, we will do our banking here in town,” he said.
“So it’s a crucial service for not only our farm, but the whole community.”
William Russell chats to Mr Thompson from behind the post office’s counter. (ABC News: Ashleigh Barraclough)
He said he would be his mother’s “backup” at the post office and help implement a number of initiatives to make it commercially viable, such as stocking produce from local farms, including his own.
They are also looking at setting up a bakery, a bed and breakfast in the post office’s back rooms, and working with other locals to put a food van out the front.
“First and foremost is keeping the postal service running,” he said.
Those campaigning to save the post office felt it was a “vital organ” of their home town. (ABC News: Ashleigh Barraclough)
Town’s revival
Hamish Thompson is thrilled Ms Kinze and her family are taking over the post office.
“It’s particularly important in a rural community like this that we have access to reliable mail services,” he said.
“The alternative is that they drive 25 kilometres down the road to St Mary’s and back every day to ask one question: ‘Is there anything for me?'”
The post office will keep its doors open thanks to campaigners. (ABC News: Ashleigh Barraclough)
In its heyday, Fingal benefited from gold and coal mining booms.
Mr Thompson was hopeful the efforts of Ms Kinze and her family to revive the post office meant the town was “coming back”.
“It feels like a turning point for the town,” he said.
“It feels like suddenly there’s a little bit of entrepreneurial zeal in the place.”