Tuggranong Post Office

Tuggranong Post Office

Located approximately 17 kms from Queanbeyan, the office originally opened as a receiving office on 16 January 1880. at the teacher's residence, Public School Tuggranong, operated by Mrs Mary Kennedy, wife of the Teacher, Michael Kennedy. The office subsequently closed 16 September 1880 and reopened on 1 November 1880, at the nearby Brennan residence, Tharwa Road, on the banks of Tuggernong Creek. The Office was operated by Mrs Mary Brennan. On 1 September 1885 the office became a Post Office continuing as such until 1 May 1891 when it was reduced in status to Receiving Office. The office closed on 3 July 1895. It is believed that the office operated from the Tuggranong homestead.

Tuggranong was one of the first settled areas in what is now the Tuggeranong district of the ACT. At it’s height it was a sheep grazing property consisting of approximately 11,000 acres, adjoining Lanyon and located in the area known as Isabella Plains.  In 1902, William Farrer proposed the site of Tuggranong for the Federal Capital. The current homestead, known as Tuggeranong was built in 1908. The property was resumed in 1916.

H&T speculated that the office utilized a numeral obliterator No. 1297 and a Type 1D(i) date stamp. '1297' was subsequently confirmed to Day Dream and '1299' confirmed allocated to Tuggranong. Postmarks from this office can be counted amongst some of the rarest from the region, with the example depicted below being the only known copy of the Tuggranong numeral cancellation.

Numeral cancellation ‘1299’  Type 4B cancelling 1d red QV x 2. Rated RRRRR (Freeman). The only known copy of this cancellation. Ex Hugh Freeman(2013). Stamp is illustrated in Freeman's, ‘The Numeral Cancellations of NSW’.