Cooma’s post office moved to a new site this month. Photo: Australia Post.
Postal services for a Snowy Mountains town have a new address.
Cooma’s Australia Post office moved to Centennial Plaza this month after operating out of a leased site on Vale Street.
A spokesperson for Australia Post said the decision to leave the old site was made because the building was “unfortunately no longer fit for purpose”.
“We will continue to renovate this new space in [the] coming weeks and keep customers updated,” the spokesperson said.
Snowy Monaro business owner Vele Civijovski welcomed the move, which he said placed the service “pretty much smack bang in the centre of town”.
“Looking into the future, it’s going to be positive,” he told Region.
“There’ll be less congestion in the morning [at the post office], because they can go in the afternoon now,” he said.
The garlic farmer uses his town’s Australia Post outlet to sell his produce and said positive elements were the planned addition of parcel lockers and changed opening hours.
“I’m pretty much using Australia Post there for all of my customer orders,” he said.
“For me, it’s a very important branch and site to have available as much as possible.”
He heads into Cooma two or three times a week and said the opening hours at the previous location could be inconvenient, especially with unexpected closures.
“[I was] going in with my customers’ orders and packing parcels, getting stickers printed,” he said.
“I can’t rush and pack my orders on a Monday or a Tuesday. It’s important to understand when I can send them and how.”
The move means the majority of postal services will operate out of the new location.
“While some delivery operations will continue at Vale Street for the time being, all retail services including parcel pickup, banking and bill payments will immediately be available at the new location,” the Australia Post spokesperson said.
However, post office boxes will be replaced with over-the-counter mail collection.
“We apologise for any inconvenience as we work to put ongoing arrangements in place,” the spokesperson said.
Mr Civijovski said he was hopeful the new location would mean more people could use the service.
“It’s providing ease of business or ease [for] consumers to do business and go about their everyday life. It’s good,” he said.
The relocated post office is open from 8 am to 5 pm, Monday to Friday, and is located at 116-128 Sharp Street in Cooma.
