Most of us take our mobile phones with instant access to emails, social media and unlimited texting and talking time for granted.
Children today don't know of a time when it was any different. And that's why the Sorted! 150 years of Tweed Mail exhibition at the Tweed Regional Museum in Murwillumbah is so important.
As an assignment, my grandson who is in grade three, recently asked me to write a letter telling him what life was like when I was at school. The study of recent history is now part of the National Curriculum.
The Sorted! exhibition is a wonderful opportunity for schools to access the displays and information that will complement the stories told by the students' grandparents.
The exhibition Sorted! 150 years of Mail in the Tweed will be on display until February 2017.
As an older person, I found the exhibition very interesting and many of the exhibits brought back memories; however I admit I wouldn't want to go back to the time when my family didn't have a telephone service, let alone to the time of our pioneers.
The exhibition is a great way to share your memories with the younger generation. If you have a child or grandchild in grade 3 it's part of the national curriculum for them to learn about this kind of history.
A postal service in the Tweed was established in 1866 after Joshua Bray and his new wife Rosalie Gertrude settled into Kynnumboon, their home on the outskirts of Murwillumbah.
The original Post Office at Kynnumboon.
Joshua and Rosalie Gertrude were appointed Postmaster and Postmistress and they operated the service from an enclosed section of their verandah. At first, it was known as the Wollumben Post Office but from 1868 the name changed to Kynnumboon Post Office where letter and parcel services operated until 1876.
Wollumben Post Office stamp 1866
I attended a very interesting talk at Kynnumboon that coincided with the start of Sorted! 150 Years of Tweed Mail. We were treated to a walking tour conducted by Bev Fairley, a direct descendant of Joshua and Rosalie Gertrude. Bev marked out an area with tape to show us where the original post office had been located, however because of flooding from the nearby Rouse River the house has since been raised and that section no longer exists.
Bev Fairley, a direct descendant of Joshua and Rosalie Gertrude Bray pointing to the area where her ancestors operated Wollumben Post office.
The exhibition explores the development of different services and technologies over time.
Some tools of trade for postal workers in the past.
It also includes a small pencil sketch of an Aboriginal man, Long Bob who carried the mail from Kynnumboon to Ballina before the direct mail route from Tweed to Casino was established.
Bev Fairley explained the mail was taken from Kynnumboon by row boat to Chinderah and then on horseback to Casino. Between 1866 and 1868 the mail service was fortnightly but by 1870 it has increased to weekly and by 1875 it was 3 times a week.
In a much later development, railway sorting carriages known as travelling post office carriages or TPOs, were used in an attempt to increase the speed of mail delivery. TPOs came to Murwillumbah in the 1930s and ran until 1985; it was the last TPO service to operate.
A travelling post office carriage was an innovative idea to increase the speed of mail delivery.
There are many interesting exhibits on display including this box-type telephone. This model was one of the most commonly used telephones in Australia from 1919 and remained popular until the 1980s due to its reliability.
The box-type telephone was developed in 1919 and remained popular for many years.
The exhibition also includes photos and information about the present day post office which was completed in 1955 and much more.
Sorted! 150 Years of Tweed Mail is on display at the Tweed Regional Museum until early February 2017.
For more information visit museum.tweed.nsw.gov.au or contact the Museum on (02) 6670 2493.
The Tweed Regional Museum is located on Queensland Rd Murwillumbah and is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm.
