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Berowra's postal services history
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DetailsBerowra was proclaimed a village in 1890 and the first Berowra Progress Association was established in 1897. One of the organization’s first essential services they lobbied for was for a receiving office to be established and the residents made solicitations through their local Member of Parliament.
This succeeded and it opened 1st April that same year, providing the district’s first formal postal service. It was established on the Berowra Railway Station platform with railway employee Charlotte Pugh responsible for supervising the mail and, for this role, she received an annual stipend on £5.
In 1898 a telephone was connected to the receiving office to enable telegrams to be sent and received, with it Mrs Pugh’s stipend increased to £10 annually.
By 1900 Berowra had around 100 residents living across 35 households. The Berowra postal service was reviewed and it was shown to be receiving 20 to 30 letters and sending out 20 each day, except Sundays. This was enough to convince the postal authorities that Berowra should have an official Post Office.
On 20th August 1900 Berowra got its Post Office with the postmistress’ annual income going up to £20.
Berowra’s poultry farmers had worked out a way to post fertilized eggs out to their buyers. They created a special packing method which protected their eggs and ensured they arrived at their destination undamaged. They even worked out a way to post day old chicks through the postal service.
In her role as postmistress, Mrs Charlotte Pugh, was involved in a huge scandal when she was caught tampering with the mail. It seems she was reading correspondence to Berowra’s first school teacher, Mr Louis Aubrey, with whom she was trying to match for marriage to her daughter, Edith Pugh. Edith was also one of Aubrey’s former students. In the end Charlotte Pugh lost her job as postmistress and Aubrey married a fellow teacher and his long-time sweetheart Ida Willis who joined him living in Berowra.
In its formative years Berowra was very much seen as a remote rural location. At the Berowra Progress Association AGM, in February 1903, the first item for consideration of the newly elected committee, was to lobby the post-office authorities to gain an extension of the penny rate of postage from Sydney. Aside from the extra expense posting to and from Berowra, this was causing great irritation for residents with the large number of underpaid letters not being delivered.
In late 1908 the railway was being duplicated between Hornsby and the Hawkesbury River and at that time there were over 100 men in the Berowra area working on the project, whilst camping in the district. This caused a serious issue for the Postal Department as on pay days nearly every worker wanted to post a portion of his pay back to his family. Berowra Post Office had very limited supply of postal notes and around £300 was required each pay day. Because of this most workers were forced to travel in Hornsby to post their remittances at the end of a hard day of work. The railway duplication work in the Berowra area went on for almost a year and in the end the services of a special postal officer were required at Berowra on the workers’ pay days.
Berowra’s General Store was established in 1903 by former railway fettler, Bob Richards. It was located just above Berowra Railway Station on Peat’s Ferry Road and Richards was keen to make the most of his new business. He immediately applied to have the postal service transferred from the railway station to his new store and he made several unsuccessful applications.
In 1913 Richards sold his business to the Foster family who were finally successful with the transfer of the Post Office to the store on 1st September 1915, and it became known as Foster’s Post Office Store.
At this stage the postal service at Berowra was very active with two mail dispatches to Hornsby and Sydney daily (except Sundays). The first left Berowra on the 9.27am rail service with the second being sent with the 4.30pm train.
In 1920 Berowra had telephones connected to a number of local businesses and residential properties. In 1926 a telephone cabinet was installed at the Foster’s Post Office Store.
Then in 1936 Daisy Foster took over as Postmistress after the death of her husband Jack Foster. On the 12th of September 1938 the Berowra Post Office was granted full postal facilities.
During the Second World War Daisy Foster had the delicate job of delivering telegrams around Berowra often with news of a local enlisted man being missing, injured or killed. Twice Daisy Foster was the recipient of such a telegram to say her own son, Joe Foster, who was in the RAAF, had been shot down and was missing behind enemy lines, presumed dead. On both occasions Joe made it back to the Allied forces to rejoin the Battle of Britain.
Hugh James established a diverse research farm in Berowra in 1927, which he named Anembo. However, he had a serious problem as no matter what he did a lot of his mail was redirected to a property in the small NSW country town of Boorowa (near Young). For this reason, twice in 1941, Hugh James lobbied Hornsby Shire Council to rename Berowra to Berowra Heights to solve his issue, but this request was declined on both occasions. 35 years later Berowra Heights would be officially named as the breakaway suburb from Berowra.
When World War II came to an end in 1945 Berowra had grown to 600 residents and was about to experience a dramatic post War population boom. No longer could mail be addressed using just the recipient’s name and their property name. Street names became very important and street numbers were introduced right across the district.
Around this time Hornsby Council made the decision to exclude the number 13 from every street in the Shire unless a resident specifically requested to be allocated that number. Huntingdon Place, Berowra is one road in the Shire that has number 13.
Berowra Waters also began to attract more residents and in December 1954 an unofficial post office was established there with Norma Huett given the job of postmistress. The Berowra Waters post office building was constructed on the eastern side in 1966.
In 1959 the Pacific Highway through Berowra was being widened and the Foster’s store had to be relocated. They had a new store built (today this is the BWS bottle shop building) and transferred everything, including the Post Office, almost directly across the Highway to the new premises. At this stage Ernie Foster had taken over the Postmaster’s role from his mother Daisy, who had retired.
By 1960 Berowra had grown to over 2,000 residents.
In 1963 Elizabeth Hayward moved to Berowra and took up the job of delivering the mail. She would use her old unreliable car but when that was out of action she would be forced to resort to using her bicycle for the mail deliveries, which she did in all conditions, and she did not stop until she completed her round, which would sometime push out until after 8pm. She lived on her own but was very well liked by everyone in the community and bred top quality Alsatian dogs at her property down Gully Road. Unfortunately, she was tragically killed in a car accident at Mt Colah in 1974.
In the late 1960s the Berowra Post Office relocated to the building at 10A Berowra Waters Road, where it is still located today and in 1988 the Post Office was held up by a lone gunman in the middle of the day.
In recent years there have been a number of different owners of both the Berowra and Berowra Heights post offices, who often also live in the local community.
Nearly 20 years ago (in November 2001) Michael and Cathy Parker took over Berowra Post Office from the retiring Frank and Nancy Shaw who had run it since 1994. One of the first things the Parkers did to was relocate the post office boxes from the front to the side of the building. This opened up the Post Office and made the inside much brighter.
In 1965, due to substantial growth in the district, the unofficial Berowra Heights post office was established in the corner store at the Crossroads. However, it was not until 19th November 1976 when Berowra and Berowra Heights formally split into two suburbs and allocated two separate post codes, 2081 and 2082 respectively. Around this time the official Berowra Heights Post Office separated from the corner store and moved into an adjacent building as a stand-alone business with Mrs Leisa Siero as the initial Berowra Heights Postmistress.
Bob and Moya Capon owned the Berowra Heights Post Office from 1985 and in the early 1990s, soon after the new Marketplace complex opened, they relocated into the new Shopping Centre. In January 1997 local couple Dave and Gail Butler took over from the Capons and ran the Post Office until March 2005 when Tony Zou took over. Gail Butler remembers that part of the responsibilities for the Berowra Heights post office was to sort the mail for the residents at Berowra Waters. This would be delivered and placed in their PO Boxes down at Berowra Waters, which shares the same 2082 post code as Berowra Heights.
In 2007 the upgraded and rebuilt Berowra Village Shopping complex reopened with the Berowra Heights Post Office located in one of the new shops. This is where it still trades today with Tony Zou running the business in his 15th year as Berowra Heights Postmaster.
KeywordsBerowraBerowra Post Office
This succeeded and it opened 1st April that same year, providing the district’s first formal postal service. It was established on the Berowra Railway Station platform with railway employee Charlotte Pugh responsible for supervising the mail and, for this role, she received an annual stipend on £5.
In 1898 a telephone was connected to the receiving office to enable telegrams to be sent and received, with it Mrs Pugh’s stipend increased to £10 annually.
By 1900 Berowra had around 100 residents living across 35 households. The Berowra postal service was reviewed and it was shown to be receiving 20 to 30 letters and sending out 20 each day, except Sundays. This was enough to convince the postal authorities that Berowra should have an official Post Office.
On 20th August 1900 Berowra got its Post Office with the postmistress’ annual income going up to £20.
Berowra’s poultry farmers had worked out a way to post fertilized eggs out to their buyers. They created a special packing method which protected their eggs and ensured they arrived at their destination undamaged. They even worked out a way to post day old chicks through the postal service.
In her role as postmistress, Mrs Charlotte Pugh, was involved in a huge scandal when she was caught tampering with the mail. It seems she was reading correspondence to Berowra’s first school teacher, Mr Louis Aubrey, with whom she was trying to match for marriage to her daughter, Edith Pugh. Edith was also one of Aubrey’s former students. In the end Charlotte Pugh lost her job as postmistress and Aubrey married a fellow teacher and his long-time sweetheart Ida Willis who joined him living in Berowra.
In its formative years Berowra was very much seen as a remote rural location. At the Berowra Progress Association AGM, in February 1903, the first item for consideration of the newly elected committee, was to lobby the post-office authorities to gain an extension of the penny rate of postage from Sydney. Aside from the extra expense posting to and from Berowra, this was causing great irritation for residents with the large number of underpaid letters not being delivered.
In late 1908 the railway was being duplicated between Hornsby and the Hawkesbury River and at that time there were over 100 men in the Berowra area working on the project, whilst camping in the district. This caused a serious issue for the Postal Department as on pay days nearly every worker wanted to post a portion of his pay back to his family. Berowra Post Office had very limited supply of postal notes and around £300 was required each pay day. Because of this most workers were forced to travel in Hornsby to post their remittances at the end of a hard day of work. The railway duplication work in the Berowra area went on for almost a year and in the end the services of a special postal officer were required at Berowra on the workers’ pay days.
Berowra’s General Store was established in 1903 by former railway fettler, Bob Richards. It was located just above Berowra Railway Station on Peat’s Ferry Road and Richards was keen to make the most of his new business. He immediately applied to have the postal service transferred from the railway station to his new store and he made several unsuccessful applications.
In 1913 Richards sold his business to the Foster family who were finally successful with the transfer of the Post Office to the store on 1st September 1915, and it became known as Foster’s Post Office Store.
At this stage the postal service at Berowra was very active with two mail dispatches to Hornsby and Sydney daily (except Sundays). The first left Berowra on the 9.27am rail service with the second being sent with the 4.30pm train.
In 1920 Berowra had telephones connected to a number of local businesses and residential properties. In 1926 a telephone cabinet was installed at the Foster’s Post Office Store.
Then in 1936 Daisy Foster took over as Postmistress after the death of her husband Jack Foster. On the 12th of September 1938 the Berowra Post Office was granted full postal facilities.
During the Second World War Daisy Foster had the delicate job of delivering telegrams around Berowra often with news of a local enlisted man being missing, injured or killed. Twice Daisy Foster was the recipient of such a telegram to say her own son, Joe Foster, who was in the RAAF, had been shot down and was missing behind enemy lines, presumed dead. On both occasions Joe made it back to the Allied forces to rejoin the Battle of Britain.
Hugh James established a diverse research farm in Berowra in 1927, which he named Anembo. However, he had a serious problem as no matter what he did a lot of his mail was redirected to a property in the small NSW country town of Boorowa (near Young). For this reason, twice in 1941, Hugh James lobbied Hornsby Shire Council to rename Berowra to Berowra Heights to solve his issue, but this request was declined on both occasions. 35 years later Berowra Heights would be officially named as the breakaway suburb from Berowra.
When World War II came to an end in 1945 Berowra had grown to 600 residents and was about to experience a dramatic post War population boom. No longer could mail be addressed using just the recipient’s name and their property name. Street names became very important and street numbers were introduced right across the district.
Around this time Hornsby Council made the decision to exclude the number 13 from every street in the Shire unless a resident specifically requested to be allocated that number. Huntingdon Place, Berowra is one road in the Shire that has number 13.
Berowra Waters also began to attract more residents and in December 1954 an unofficial post office was established there with Norma Huett given the job of postmistress. The Berowra Waters post office building was constructed on the eastern side in 1966.
In 1959 the Pacific Highway through Berowra was being widened and the Foster’s store had to be relocated. They had a new store built (today this is the BWS bottle shop building) and transferred everything, including the Post Office, almost directly across the Highway to the new premises. At this stage Ernie Foster had taken over the Postmaster’s role from his mother Daisy, who had retired.
By 1960 Berowra had grown to over 2,000 residents.
In 1963 Elizabeth Hayward moved to Berowra and took up the job of delivering the mail. She would use her old unreliable car but when that was out of action she would be forced to resort to using her bicycle for the mail deliveries, which she did in all conditions, and she did not stop until she completed her round, which would sometime push out until after 8pm. She lived on her own but was very well liked by everyone in the community and bred top quality Alsatian dogs at her property down Gully Road. Unfortunately, she was tragically killed in a car accident at Mt Colah in 1974.
In the late 1960s the Berowra Post Office relocated to the building at 10A Berowra Waters Road, where it is still located today and in 1988 the Post Office was held up by a lone gunman in the middle of the day.
In recent years there have been a number of different owners of both the Berowra and Berowra Heights post offices, who often also live in the local community.
Nearly 20 years ago (in November 2001) Michael and Cathy Parker took over Berowra Post Office from the retiring Frank and Nancy Shaw who had run it since 1994. One of the first things the Parkers did to was relocate the post office boxes from the front to the side of the building. This opened up the Post Office and made the inside much brighter.
In 1965, due to substantial growth in the district, the unofficial Berowra Heights post office was established in the corner store at the Crossroads. However, it was not until 19th November 1976 when Berowra and Berowra Heights formally split into two suburbs and allocated two separate post codes, 2081 and 2082 respectively. Around this time the official Berowra Heights Post Office separated from the corner store and moved into an adjacent building as a stand-alone business with Mrs Leisa Siero as the initial Berowra Heights Postmistress.
Bob and Moya Capon owned the Berowra Heights Post Office from 1985 and in the early 1990s, soon after the new Marketplace complex opened, they relocated into the new Shopping Centre. In January 1997 local couple Dave and Gail Butler took over from the Capons and ran the Post Office until March 2005 when Tony Zou took over. Gail Butler remembers that part of the responsibilities for the Berowra Heights post office was to sort the mail for the residents at Berowra Waters. This would be delivered and placed in their PO Boxes down at Berowra Waters, which shares the same 2082 post code as Berowra Heights.
In 2007 the upgraded and rebuilt Berowra Village Shopping complex reopened with the Berowra Heights Post Office located in one of the new shops. This is where it still trades today with Tony Zou running the business in his 15th year as Berowra Heights Postmaster.
KeywordsBerowraBerowra Post OfficeRelated
CollectionNathan Tilbury
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Berowra's postal services history. Hornsby Shire, accessed 05/04/2026, https://hornsbyshire.recollect.net.au/nodes/view/5658