July 25, 2022
Hivesville residents will present a petition to the Federal Government to request Australia Post provide a home-delivery mail service to the town.
The petition was launched on July 16 by Tania York and Heather Cronin, with the assistance of Federal Member for Flynn Colin Boyce.
On Monday, Tania told southburnett.com.au the campaign had already gathered a full page of signatories in little more than a week, and she was hopeful the rest of the town would join in over the coming month.
At present, Hivesville residents need to rent a post box at Hivesville Food and Fuel to receive their mail, at a cost of between $65 and $110 a year.
But ironically, residents living 11km away in nearby Proston already enjoy a free home delivery postal service in their town area.
Residents living outside Hivesville’s town area receive a thrice-weekly service because they are on a rural mail delivery run.
According to the latest Census data, Hivesville’s population (173 people) is very close to half of Proston’s (410 people) but the median income of Hivesville residents ($659) is more than $100 a week less than Proston’s ($764).
One reason for this is that Hivesville has an older population (median age 57) than Proston (median age 54).
Tania said a key reason she and Heather had launched the petition was because they thought it was unfair Hivesville residents had to pay for a service that neighbouring areas received for free.
A second reason was they thought it was even more unfair that elderly residents were being forced to travel to the town’s service station to retrieve their mail – a difficult and tiring task that had already proven too much for some elderly people she knew.
Cr Kathy Duff, who asked Mr Boyce to present the completed petition on residents’ behalf, said she supported Tania and Heather’s campaign and thought their request was “more than fair”.
Tania and Heather plan to present their petition to Mr Boyce towards the end of August so he can give it Federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland.
Hivesville residents who would like to know where they can sign the petition should phone Tania on 0429-997-701 or look for a petition stand at the monthly Hivesville Markets.
[Photos: Kathy Duff]
