Chimneys

The chimneys at Big Hill Post Office are the most prominent things still standing above the roofline. From the outside, the corrugated iron surrounding them has oxidised to a deep, even rust, and a sheet metal cowl caps the flue, added, according to Brett's 2020 observation, by a previous occupant rather than as part of any original construction. The bare branches of a deciduous tree reach in from the left, and the sky above is flat and grey, the kind of sky that sits low over the Southern Tablelands for much of winter. Inside, the residence had a fireplace in each bedroom. That detail matters at this elevation. Big Hill sits at 658 metres, north of Marulan, in what is now Upper Lachlan Shire. The walls above the beds were plastered with newspaper, not as decoration, but as draught insulation against the cold that came through the vertical timber slab construction on nights when the temperature dropped hard. The post office opened on 1 November 1869, gazetted by NSW Postmaster-General Daniel Egan on 7 October that year. Mail reached the building from 1 January 1870, when contractor John Wade began running the Mooroowoolen, Long Reach, and Big Hill loop three times a week by horseback, on a three-year contract worth £45 per annum. The post office function itself was compact, a kiosk window and a mail slot at the front of the building. The rest was a family residence, the typical rural arrangement of the period. Big Hill Post Office operated for 76 years, closing in 1945. By the time Brett photographed the site in 2020, the verandah had partially collapsed, the wallpaper had largely disintegrated, and dense blackberry was consuming the back garden. The chimneys and the rusted iron roof remained, visible above everything else.