Ohakune Junction Post Office 'under review'

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 49, 29 May 1984, Page 1

Ohakune Junction Post Office 'under review'

Rumours are once again rife about the possible closure of the Ohakune Junction Post Office' (pictured). These rumours have been around before ... and for many years. Former Ohakune Postmaster, Bully Hays, who arrived in 1977 said that within six months of taking up his appointment he had been told that the Junction Post Office was to close. But he sought the support of local councillors, businessmen and residents and managed to get a 6-month 'reprieve.' With the prospect of the Junction area developing as a major tourist and apres ski zone this temporary 'reprieve' was extended to the present time ... seveu years later. It now seems that this historic building — completed in 1914 six years after the Main Trunk Line arrived in Ohakune — may no longer serve the Junction community as a Post Office. But, according to the present Postmaster, Sam Swarbrick, "a review of the business level is being made but no decision has been made yet and none will be taken until all parties involved had been advised prior to any final proposition is implemented." At the present time the Ohakune Junction Post Office is staffed for only four hours a day (9am- lpm) and has 21 private boxes to service. It is used throughout the year by the few permanent businesses and residents of the Junction for whom the 'local' Post Office is a convenient facility. Junction businessman, Ohakune Promotions Association officer and borough councillor Mike Wig-

gins said that it would be a 'disaster' if the local Post Office was to close without consultation and sufficient notice. "A number of businesses in the Junction have recently invested large sums of money in winter promotion using their Junction Post Office addresses on their stationery and other advertising media and this would all be wasted if we were not given ample warning." He said he hoped that local businesses would be approached before any decision was made and that no decision should be made until after the ski season. With the onset of another ski season imminent and with the potential development of the Junction area still unrealised the rumoured closure of the local Post Office at this time is 'unfortunate.' One public figure in Ohakune has suggested that even if the postal service presently offered at the Junction Post Office was to be abandoned (there is talk of alternative postal facility being operated as an agency in one of the local shops), the building itself should be retained.