Uki Post Office

A postal service started at Rowlands Creek as a Receiving Office in 1901. The mail was delivered twice weekly by horseback with an annual fee of £22/15/-.

The Uki Post Office opened on April 1st 1910, in leased premises near the old Uki bank. The Postmistress also conducted a fruit and confectionary store in the building. About 79 householders residing within three miles of Uki received mail, and were able to receive telegrams from 1911.

Election Nights

In 1911, when the first telephone service to Uki P.O. was connected, election night dances would be held in the Hall. Each election update was phoned in, the music would stop, and the postmaster would announce the bulletins from the hall stage.

In 1945 the postmaster announced the sinking of the Bismark, a German Boat sunk in WW2, from the hall stage). 1912 the telephone exchange at Uki was from 9 am to 6 pm on Sundays and holidays excepted. Besides the P.O., the list of subscribers was No.2 G. Parker, No.3 E. S. & A. Bank, and No.4 W. O. Irvine.

In 1913 the Uki Hall Trustees permitted W.O. Irvine (who started business in 1905/1906) to erect a small building for his auctioneer business to be built on hall land between the Hall and the general store. In 1914 the original Uki post office building burnt down. The fire was first discovered in the Post office. The post office operated out of the Hall for a short time and then moved in with W. O. Irvine in his auctioneer building.

In October 1914, the Uki progress association called a meeting to raise a petition to make a request to the postal department to say that the present office, even without a letterbox and public telephone bureau, is what the public is asked to put up with. One cannot hold a telephone communication of a private nature without everyone in the vicinity of the other overhearing every word of the conversation.

A branch of the Commonwealth Savings Bank was opened, and a money order facility was introduced at Uki P.O. on May 1st 1915. The P.O. also sold confectionary, fruit, summer drinks and stationery. Mr C. V. Milsom took over as postmaster on November 1st 1919, which began three generations of the Milsom family as postmasters at Uki.

In 1922 there was a telephone switchboard with ten subscribers connected. Mr Milsom was given permission by the hall trust to build a small residence behind the P.O. An automatic telephone service at Uki was cut over at 3.30 pm on April 3rd 1941. A new automatic exchange was re-sited from the main road to Rowlands Creek Road in 1967. The changeover was necessary from the old three-digit code to the six-digit code for subscriber numbers.

Today Uki Post offers postal services, coffee and exhibits local artists. Stop for a cup!