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The History of Dovedale Post Office

(May 26th 2012)
Report by Coralie Smith

The May meeting of the Motueka and District Historical Association was held at Community House with 20 people attending. This was the first meeting held indoors this year the other three being held at Mapua-Mahana, Brightwater and Dovedale. We like to get out and see the history in the summer months.

Coralie Smith introduced John Deering whom she had heard speak on his career as a drug squad detective. He has carried over his detective work to the history of the NZ Postal Service and one of his more in depth researches was on the Dovedale Post Office.

John Deering doesn't collect stamps but postal markings and post offices. There are about 1500 members world wide who follow this hobby. They collect the markings by bidding in postal auctions, attending auctions, garage sales, second hand shops and talking to local people.

They are known for standing in a bare field to take photos of where the Post Office used to stand- often in the pouring rain!! They liken themselves to the characters from "The Last of the Summer Wine".

The first Post Office in the Dovedale area was in an area the locals knew as Churchill. When a post office name was sought the name Churchill was already taken by a place in the North Island so the post office deemed it would be called Awa which means a spring or watering place.

The first office was in the house of John Win. An interesting man from Wales who has left a large number of descendants often recognised for their black black hair and dark features.

Another exceptional family also ended up running the Awa post office, this time Louis the son of Appo Hocton. Ah Poo Hoc Ting came to New Zealand and very unusually married an English woman. He bought land in the Dovedale valley near Brandy Creek and in later years built a very large house for Louis although he himslf lived in more a modest abode. Both these houses can still be seen, one in better order than the other.

The post office in Dovedale was a case of now you see it and now you don't. It shifted as the population shifted. In those times the people could petition for a post office and often it only served 8 to 12 households. When it was at a house the government might build a special room attached to your house or just put some shelving and a counter in an existing room. When you wanted to give up the job they took the shelving away along with your date stamp. This is the stamp that John and others like him go looking for on old postcards and envelopes.

Another family involved with the post office in Dovedale is the Lammas family. John has gone visiting the local families and learned about their family history, collected photos about the characters who ran the post offices and heard the stories about the fires, floods and terrible weather they have had to contend with in their jobs.

Just down the road is the Thorpe post office. One difference to Dovedale is that it didn't move. Started by James Rose and later his son George it was revealed that it was rare for women to get the title of post master(never post mistress, even today) and yet it was usually the wife who ran the business.

An even later post master at Thorpe, Ron Fowler with his wife Eileen, went away overseas during WW2 and served as an army postmaster in Italy. The letters from home and the food parcels were the most looked for item by a soldier and they had to be got through even in the thick of battle.

In 1957 on the 23rd September at 3.05pm the Thorpe Post Office burnt down. The Fowlers house burnt down. They had a telephone line rigged up in two hours and a temporary date stamp in two days. This stamp is extremely rare. If you have something marked with it then John would like to know. The house was rebuilt this time with a store attached and the post got through until rural mail delivery services started.

What was once the centre of the rural community had come to an end. In places the old post office can still be seen used as a shed or part of a woolshed. But most times it's just an empty space waiting for the postal history lot to come along and photograph it.

 
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