3 September 2025
A standing-room only community “town hall” at a Kirribilli church last night rallied opposition to the planned closure of Milsons Point Post Office, with North Sydney Council, federal MP Zali Steggall and attendees calling for a solution to keep local postal services operating.
Meeting organisers from the Milsons Point and Lavender Bay precinct committees said about 300 residents attended the session at Our Lady Star of the Sea. Acting Milsons Point precinct secretary Michael Bracka opened proceedings, outlining a campaign to generate “500 letters or emails” to federal and state decision-makers, Transport for NSW and Australia Post, and flagging a peaceful community rally planned for 14 September. Australia Post is vacating the premises owned by Transport for NSW in the Milsons Point Station shopping precinct because of a massive rent rise.
Joan Street, secretary of the Lavender Bay Precinct, told the meeting that the two precincts had joined forces on “this very important issue” and thanked residents, volunteers and local media specialists for mobilising support. She highlighted the online petition against closure, which she said was already tracking at more than 2,500 signatures, and praised pro bono work being provided to the campaign. Street said the breadth of community involvement underscored “one common objective—and that is to save Milsons Point Post Office.”
North Sydney mayor Zoë Baker told the meeting the post office “is a place that is central to and at the heart of this community,” adding that the loss would particularly affect elderly residents, people with disabilities and those without access to digital services. Baker said the notice of closure followed earlier relocations of North Sydney and Crows Nest post offices, which she said had “absolutely reduced accessibility for so many people.”
Baker said Council had written on 14 August to Australia Post seeking clarification and received a response on 22 August advising the outlet would close on 12 November, with Australia Post listing alternative outlets at Blues Point Road, Northpoint and Pitt Street. She added that Council adopted a mayoral minute on 25 August to write to the prime minister, federal communications minister, federal health and ageing ministers, and Australia Post’s CEO seeking an urgent review. Council also resolved to write to the NSW premier and transport minister seeking “clarification on that rental increase for the Australia Post tenancy and a request that there be a rent moratorium to support the continuing tenancy and an exploration of an alternative location within the Bridge tenancies if it’s not possible.”
Steggall, the federal member for Warringah, told the meeting via a statement that she “share[s] the community’s deep disappointment of the decision to close the Milsons Point Post Office,” noting impacts on “elderly and disabled residents in Greenway and James Milson Village and also the residents of the area, including the Port Jackson Tower Housing Complex.” She said the closure “was not part of Australia Post’s modernisation program earlier this year,” adding that Transport for NSW “chose not to extend the Australia Post lease and went to tender with a rate that was uncommercial for Australia Post.” Steggall said she had written to the prime minister and Australia Post and met with the company to seek “considered solutions,” including reopening the tender or, failing that, a local licensee “that would incorporate postal services and an ATM.”
Wilson, the state member for North Shore, said in a statement that she shared “deep concerns about the closure of this vital service,” describing the “lack of transparency around this closure” as unacceptable. “Australia Post has pointed to rising rents from Transport for NSW, but there has been no meaningful consultation with the community, no proper assessment and no willingness to work towards a solution that prioritises people and service delivery,” she said. Wilson said she had written to the NSW transport minister and the federal communications minister “to seek an affordable rent outcome and to call for an urgent review of this decision,” arguing there “must be transparency around these lease negotiations and a proper recognition of the social responsibility that both Australia Post and Transport for NSW have to our community.”
Organisers said representatives of both Australia Post and Transport for NSW would be formally invited to meet residents to explain the closure decision, any consultation undertaken and options to maintain services. The precincts are coordinating the letter campaign over the next two weeks and encouraged residents to send their submissions via post “so that they get some revenue.”