Ada was born in Upper Orara in 1902. She didn’t marry or have children, but her working career gave her high amounts of respect amongst the community she lived and which opened up her friend circle.(1) She lived in Sydney for a number of years, where she worked as a companion housekeeper for a well-to-do family matriarch. In 1930, she returned to her family home in Orara when her Aunt Annie Hoschke needed assistance in operating the Upper Orara Post Office after it was upgraded. Ada took over the running of the Post Office in 1932.

The Upper Orara Post Office was run out of the family's home, and began operating in 1915. The garden that Annie maintained in the front of the building was well known. (2) She was dearly loved by the community, as her obituary shows:

“Deceased was renowned for her unselfish service at the Orara post office and the door was never closed to the people whom she served.  She will always be remembered for the beautiful way in which she kept her garden, her love of children and the unfailing helping hand she extended to all.” (3)

Women and postal work have a long association, as noted by R. W. McLachlan:

"The post mistress job and particular type of work was considered socially acceptable employment for women and women exercised the power over some males in the industry. Women also held prestige for this type of work and were looked highly upon. As official post and telegraph mistresses, the women exercised extraordinary supervisory power over male members of staff and shared in the prestige attached to telegraphic work. Thanks to their relative “immobility”, they secured a foothold in the postal department in a period when many working men lived transient lives removed from the allegedly emasculating effects of domesticity and indoor employment. Equal pay from the early 1860s distinguished female official employees in N.S.W. from their peers in the other Australian post and telegraph utilities." (4)

In Ada’s own recollections which she sent to Coffs Harbour Museum from her nursing home in Grafton she says ‘The Post Mistress or master were an important part of the community, a hub in the wheel so to speak. We paid pensions, child endowment and handed out coupons during WW2 for food, petrol and clothing. People rang for Aunty Annie's recipe for Orange Jam or this and that. When accidents happened at the Mill, they rang for her brandy which she used for nothing except her Christmas Cake. The Post Office was truly a social service’. (5)

 Much like her Aunt, Ada also became renowned in the community for her extended favours and helping of others.  “The people were grateful for us and our opening hours for their cheques and wouldn’t hesitate to do favours for me. We really had a continuous service, day and night”.

In 1944 when Ada was leaving the Post Office, she received a beautiful letter that was found tucked into a small book of poems. The letter reads: 

"This is the last little note to the old address and when you are gone that Post Office will not seem like the same place at all. In fact, it will only be somewhere to get stamps and things. I am returning to you, two magazines for which many thanks and many more thanks for your many kindness and favours, which meant more than words can properly tell to a lovely person." (6)

Ada passed away in 1998 and was buried in the Clarence Lawn cemetery at South Grafton. She bequeathed a collection of personal items and family heirlooms to the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum.

Endnotes

(Written and researched by Alana Castor, Southern Cross University Community Heritage Project Intern, February 2020)