Weathered vertical timber boards in sunlight. Paint faded and peeling across most of the surface. Rust discolouration concentrated along the lower section. A corner of the verandah structure visible at the frame edge. No objects left behind.
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Signed, numbered, with COA. Made to order in 5 to 10 business days (unframed). Shipped in protective packaging with edition certificate, paper-stock reference and a printed care guide.
The verandah wall of Big Hill Post Office sits along the bedroom wing of the building, its timber boards exposed to the full weight of Southern Tablelands winters at an elevation of 658 metres. Sunlight catches the surface in this 2020 frame, drawing out the detail of peeling paint, the grain of weathered timber, and the rust that has spread across the lower boards where moisture collects against the base. Big Hill Post Office opened on 1 November 1869, gazetted by NSW Postmaster-General Daniel Egan on 7 October of that year. The notice, published in the NSW Government Gazette, announced the new office as "Big Hill, near Marulan." From the first day of January 1870, mail contractor John Wade rode a three-stop loop through Mooroowoolen, Long Reach, and Big Hill three times a week, under a three-year contract worth £45 per annum. The building combined a small postal kiosk and mail slot on the road-facing side with a full family residence behind it. Multiple bedrooms, each with its own fireplace. A kitchen and dining area with an old stone fireplace still in place. Walls in the sleeping areas plastered with newspaper against the draught. The post-office function itself occupied very little of the floorplan; a kiosk window and a mail slot were, as the photographer's notes record, more or less all that actually comprised the post office. The settlement at Big Hill had grown from the grazing country established around Hannibal Hawkins Macarthur's Arthursleigh property, first granted in September 1819. By the time the post office opened fifty years later, a Methodist chapel and a school had joined it as the civic buildings of the district. The post office closed in 1945 after 76 years of operation, as farm amalgamations and improved transport reduced the local population. By 2020, the verandah had partially collapsed at one corner and the structure was giving way on several sides. The timber in this frame carries that history in its surface: the paint, the rust, the slow return of the material to something closer to raw.
04·FROM THE FIELD NOTES
The side verandah of Big Hill Post Office runs along the bedroom wing of the building, its timber boards carrying the accumulated damage of seasons at 658 metres elevation. Paint has lifted and faded. Rust has spread across the lower boards where moisture has settled and sat. The post office opened on 1 November 1869 and operated until 1945, a combined postal kiosk and family residence on the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, north of Marulan. By 2020, the verandah corner had partially collapsed and the structure was open to the weather on several sides.
Brett Patman
05·SIZE GUIDE
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