After the opening of the railway to Canterbury in 1882, residents requested a post office but they had to wait until 1892 when a small building was provided. From the beginning, women were frequently appointed as Post Mistresses : the first was Ethel May Argyle whose mother had been Post Mistress in a number of country towns. Then in the economic downturn, 1894, the office was demoted to ‘unofficial’ and George E Portingale took over, followed by his wife, Jane, from 1897-1900.

By then, the post office had a savings bank, money order system, telegraphic communications and operated a postal service for parcels, packets, newspapers, letters and lettercards in conjunction with the railway station. From 1900 a manual telephone exchange operated, initially with 29 subscribers.

In 1901, control of posts and telegraphs was taken over by the Commonwealth and in 1907 a site was purchased from the Victorian railways for a new post office in Canterbury which was built between 1908 and 1910 and extended again in 1915. Mary Jane Robinson became Post Mistress from 1901 to 1906, followed briefly by two women, and then reappointed in 1909 until 1924.

Between 1915 and 1926, additions and new facilities were provided for the Post Office. A new telephone exchange on a separate site was completed at the end of 1927 with a capacity of 4700 lines. In 1964, a new site for an automatic exchange was acquired in Highfield Road. The Canterbury Post Office was closed in 1996 with the licensed post office transferring to the newsagency in Maling Road. The old Post Office building is protected by heritage controls.

Canterbury Postal History, CHG Archives. www.https://canterburyhistorygroup.org.au