Tuesday, 2 May 2023

 Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (19:08): (134) My adjournment matter is for the Deputy Premier in her capacity as Minister for the Suburban Rail Loop. Our community has been shocked to learn that the Box Hill Central post office located in the Box Hill Central North shopping precinct will be permanently closed from 26 May. This will leave the central business district of Box Hill without a post office for the first time since 1861, when Box Hill was just a tiny village and still some 20 years away from having a railway station. In fact according to some sources, Box Hill post office was first to officially use the name ‘Box Hill’, after the postmaster proposed the name of his birthplace in England. Over the last 162 years the Box Hill post office has certainly witnessed many changes, and it continues to be well used by local residents and businesses – and not just to post a letter. They use this service every day to pay their bills, deliver their packages and arrange passport documents, photos and statutory declarations. Every time I visit the shop, there is a line of customers. It is a busy post office. Sadly, its closure will mean that the entire Box Hill electorate is left without a full-service post office.

Even to access their nearest licensed post office, residents and businesses in the Box Hill activity centre will need to drive to Box Hill South. Given the predicted increase in population and employment in central Box Hill over coming years, it is deeply concerning that Australia Post plan to leave this thriving precinct without a single post office. Box Hill is a key station on the Andrews government’s Suburban Rail Loop project. It will provide a north–south rail connection for thousands of people along the Belgrave and Lilydale lines, and it will provide access to the jobs in central Box Hill for people living in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs. The enormous economic activity that will be generated by this project surely necessitates a full-service post office.

The action that I seek is that the minister ensure that the Suburban Rail Loop Authority engages with Australia Post on its plan for continued services in central Box Hill, both throughout the construction of the project and into the future, via the authority’s precinct planning process.