WARRNAMBOOL'S historic Timor Street post office will be closed early next year and sold to the city council for $1.3 million.
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The in-principle sale agreement announced yesterday will mean the end of more than a century of continuous use as the city's main postal outlet.
Australia Post told The Standard it would close counter services at its Timor Street business centre early in the year, but keep the private mail boxes in Gilles Street.
The smaller retail outlet at 169 Koroit Street will then become the city's main Australia Post business centre.
Yesterday’s announcement confirms speculation bubbling since the compilation of a confidential list in July of 27 postal outlets earmarked for closure as the national postal service faces stiff competition from email and other electronic communication.
Warrnambool City Council chief executive Bruce Anson said the Timor Street site was a long-term strategic purchase and he expected the deal to be settled early next financial year.
“We haven’t yet decided on the future use of the site, but it will help council cater for opportunities presented by the future growth of our city,” he said.
The prime CBD site is adjacent to the overcrowded municipal office complex and entertainment centre which is set for a $9.3m makeover.
It would allow the city to relocate some of its departments scattered in other venues and start renovations on the civic centre, which has virtually been untouched since it was built in the 1970s.
The nearby city library could also undergo a major change and be available for office use if a proposed joint library venture with South West Institute of TAFE is approved.
Earlier this year Mr Anson said the council would be keen to get access to at least the rear yard of the old post office which has been vacant since a new mail sorting centre was opened on Rooneys Road earlier this year.
He also said there was scope for the council to enter a shared arrangement with government departments to jointly establish an office complex on the site and bring more regional positions back to Warrnambool.
Staff at the post office and council were told of the deal yesterday.
The site has been a post office since 1857 when the first purpose-built government postal service was established in Warrnambool.
According to local historian Elizabeth O’Callaghan the existing double-storey ornate stone structure was built in 1876, replacing the earlier building.
