May 16, 2017
A petition has been launched to try again to get Blackbutt’s bizarre postcode troubles fixed by Australia Post.
Blackbutt shares its 4306 postcode with Ipswich city which is located 140km away.
The two areas don’t even share a border.
Blackbutt-Benarkin, which is a rural area, gets lumped in with the metropolitan area when insurance premiums are calculated on the basis of postcodes.
Australia Post has previously refused to allocate different postcodes saying the change was “not necessary”, despite acknowledging it had been raised several times with them by Federal MPs, including then-Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Karana Downs resident Simone Karandrews has lodged the e-Petition with Federal Parliament to try to solve the problem.
Ironically, Simone’s problem with the postcode is the exact opposite of Blackbutt residents.
She was knocked back for a mortgage application for a home at Deebing Heights because her bank judged 4306 as “rural” and too risky to lend money on, despite the fact that the house was only 10 minutes from Ipswich and 40 minutes from the Brisbane CBD.
“I have now lodged an e-Petition to Federal Parliament regarding the issue of the 4306 postcode, seeking Australia Post to reallocate more appropriate postcodes reflective of geographical location,” Simone said.
The petition, addressed to the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives, draws to the attention of the House:
“The lack of a suitable postcode for residents currently residing in the suburbs covered by postcode 4306. Postcode 4306 covers more than 50 suburbs and is spread across five federal electorates taking in six different local Council areas. Residents of these localities share the same postcode as a town approximately 130km away from their location. This shared postcode impacts residents’ access to government services, including social services and providers, insurance, financing and the many other circumstances that warrant a geographically suitable postcode. A previous successful postcode reallocation occurred in the western suburbs of Brisbane within the past decade setting a precedent for Australia Post to consider this matter more seriously.”
The petition is live for four weeks, expiring on June 7.
- The e-Petition can be signed online on the Parliament of Australia website
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We do not want to be associated with Ipswich’s post code giving us unfair costs for household & motor vehicle insurances.
Simone is the daughter of a friend of mine and I know the difficulties that the family has suffered because of this huge area covered by the postcode. Australia Post, please listen!
We have been trying to get this done for years this is the second petition I know of the last one was done manually and given to a politician but nothing ever came of it.
We are in Linville, Moore, Harlin have the same postcode along with Mt Crosby and quite number of other areas which are not near Ipswich.
We recently relocated from Burpengary to Blackbutt (so quiet and friendly here), we were shocked to find how much extra we had to pay on our car and house insurances, because of the postcode 4306 being the same as Ipswich! We find this totally absurd!