SO much of who we are is about knowing where we came from and sometimes history has a neat way of surprising us with an uncanny link to the past.
After five years lobbying, The Shepparton Heritage Museum is on the cusp of rebuilding, to scale, a replica of the grand, Shepparton Post Office c. 1882, which stood it all its Victorian splendour on Fraser Street, until its controversial demolition in 1973.
The new site for the ‘old’ post office will be on the corner of Midland Highway and Welsford street, where the current Heritage Centre Cottage is situated. As the new History Museum, the post office will showcase local history across two new galleries while also providing basement space for our archives.
“This is to future proof what we’re doing with history,” says Heritage Centre manager, Geoff Allemand.
“It is wonderful that Shepparton has major attractions in SAM and Move motor museum; they are very impressive to look at. We believe the Heritage Centre and our Post Office Museum would be another big draw card. It’s a vote of confidence for history.”
With funding from council to be ratified, The Heritage Centre is raising funds for preparatory works for the rebuild by ingeniously selling post office boxes as time capsules with a lease of 99 years and have also started a GofundMe campaign.
But it is perhaps the historical connection to the Heritage Centre site itself, that compounds the significance of post office rebuild.
In 1858, a general store keeper by the name of F P Knight became the first Postmaster of Shepparton, and his postal service ran from the very site of the new rebuild project.
You can donate to the rebuild project at https://gofund.me/4dd9aba9https://gofund.me/4dd9aba9
