9.2 - A Village is Born

Information about early Woolgoolga postal services from State Records Office (From an 1884/5 Postal Service file):

• • David McIntosh was postmaster in Woolgoolga in 1885. James Graham was the mail contractor who did the mail run from Grafton to Fernmont (near Bellingen).

  • There were only two small post offices between Grafton and Coffs Harbour receiving office – Corinda (Corindi) and Woolgoolga. It used to take the mailman 2 hours to get from Corindi to Woolgoolga and 4 hours to get from there to Coffs Harbour. According to the records there was only one substantial businessman who required regular business mail services in Woolgoolga (presumably the mill owner W. Pullen).

  • The records mention a number of early settlers and farmers who received mail in 1884 and 1885 including James Small at Pine Creek Coffs who was a big timber man and Henry Wall a freeholder at Corindi who wrote letters to plea for changes to the mail service. At Corindi there were Thomas & William McCallum, Adam Moncrieff, Frederick Firth, D. Mackey (the teacher), G. McKenzie (a selector). At Woolgoolga there was resident Henry Pullen, farmers (A. Brisbane, J. Riemer, G. Barnett, S. Bridgwood, Elijah Osborne, G. Sneesley, William & Thomas Sare, Cuthbert Willis, John Taylor, James Taylor, Thomas Blackwood) selectors (James Webb, S Janes, John Turner, Christopher Charles Childs, A M Champaia and John Wells) and William Bethel the carpenter, Albert Robinson the blacksmith, W.F. Pullen the Mill Owner, Ernest Pullen the storekeeper, David McIntosh the postmaster, Chalres Buchas the tinsmith and there were several Skinner families and a Mr Z. Houp at Moonee.