Farewell to Glen Osmond Post Office

This week we farewell a City of Burnside institution for many of our residents – the Glen Osmond Post Office. Which is scheduled to close its doors for the final time on 4 September 2024.

Located between Vine Lane and Queens Lane on Glen Osmond Road, the post office has sat here for over 50 years, with current Postmistress Alison having been here for 10 of those.

Glen Osmond resident Peter Traynor has been visiting the post office 20 years and said losing both the Post Office and Alison will be felt in the community.

‘It’s the convenience of the post office. It is something we grew up with, rely on and depend on. Small suburban post offices are a part of the community,’ Peter said.

‘Alison has provided a great service over her time. But it is the sense of community that she has built, I’ve seen the caring and nurturing approach to her customer service, especially the elderly people who often come there.

‘We’re losing an important pivot because it provides so many services. It is a place where people come to do a lot of their business.’

The land on which the group of shops were built was purchased in 1918 by William Hart, a butcher. The butcher shop was located where the adjacent motel now stands on the corner of Queens Lane. On the other side of the shops runs Vine Lane and north of that corner was the Vine Inn. The Vine Inn was built in 1850 and comprised 11 rooms in a two-story building with stables, stockyards and cottages along Vine Lane.

Running as a hotel until 1909, the space was converted to a boarding house and then a corner shop, until it was demolished in 1970. The Hart family owned the property until 1988 and leased the land in 1962 to the Commonwealth of Australia and then to the Australian Postal Commission in 1983.

Records indicate that there has been a post office between Vine Lane and Queens Lane since 1884, started by Mrs Mary Bowen who purchased the land in 1878 and ran a store, becoming the first Postmistress.

You can hear more from Peter Traynor on the 28 August edition of Burnside Highlights.

Glen Osmond resident Peter Traynor