There was a Post Office in Barrys Reef which opened in 1866. Records show that –
Extracts of Blackwood news from the Bacchus Marsh Express paper.
August 18, 1866 – The movement for a Post Office at Barry’s Reef successful. Tenders called for conveying the mails daily from Golden Point. Mr. Shaw, we believe has accepted the office of Postmaster.
Tommy Johnson lived in Barrys Reef and lost his left leg in a gun-shot accident. The author was told Mr. Vigor the butcher, cut off Tommy’s leg with a saw when his leg went gangrene.å
Tommy is photographed here at Barrys Reef with John and Liz Murphy (nee Snell). The Murphy’s had the Post Office at Barrys Reef. Tommy is holding a newspaper where his leg should be. He walked with the aid of crutches.
In a newspaper article kept in a scrap book by the late Mrs. Maude Noble it said –
“The hurricane lamp is good enough for me,” says Tommy Johnson of Barrys Reef age 88 yrs, one of Barrys Reef’s three permanent residents. He is not impressed by the news that the ghost town will get electricity. “These electrical gadgets are a curse. They’ll end up ruining the Aussie.” Old Tom has lived at Barrys Reef for 70 years and remembers when it was a boom town. So if it’s gold-mining yarns you are seeking old Tom is the man to spin them.
He said “Barrys Reef had 30 pubs in the 1880’s not counting the sly grogs. There was a local brewery and a whisky distillery where they made a kind of mountain dew.”
Old Tom went to the ‘Reef’ as a miner but soon decided there was more money in grog than gold. He bought he Commercial Hotel on main street and worked from 6am until past midnight each day for ten years serving liquor to thirsty miners each day.
“One of my favourite sports was beating the local copper, who was always trying to catch me serving after hours. The only time he caught me at 3am one day, I told him he had won at last and then offered him a drink to celebrate his success. He was so full at 6 o’clock that I threw him on a sofa and left him there the rest of the night with the rest of the drunks. He never checked on me again.”
Digger – Death Index records show – Thomas Andrew Johnson,
Father: Thomas Andre Johnson, mother: Mary Anne Burton, died at Ballarat in 1965, age 89 yrs. Reg Number: 21596.
Barrys Reef Post Office fallen down. photo by Margot Hitchcock C.1980.
Ray Durrell I can remember going to the old post office and reading the old newspapers that had been used in the walls and under the lino floor. Went past a while back and there are a few remains but it’s basically flat now.
