By Jess Baker
Hundreds of crocheted red squares have made their way from across the country and overseas to the Warwick Post Office for Queensland’s quirkiest festival.
For the very first time, Australia Post is participating in Jumpers and Jazz in July.
The Warwick shop’s entire staff spent Wednesday 14 July dressing their historic, heritage-listed building on Palmerin Street in red fabric crocheted and knitted by people from as far away as New Zealand.
Warwick postal manager Shauna Whitley said the support the post office received was amazing and unexpected.
“We put a call out to Australia Post state-wide, (and it) went all the way through to small business hubs … and then everyone banded together,” Shauna said.
“And if they didn’t knit or crochet themselves then they were calling in their mums and grandmothers to help.
“We were inundated. There were boxes every day with 30 to 100 squares in them.”
Shauna said Warwick-based individuals, community groups and Australia Post staff and their friends and family donated nearly 800 squares of crocheted and knitted fabric.
“And I only asked once,” she said.
“I just set one email … in January 2020, then Covid struck and (Jumpers and Jazz in July) was postponed so we’ve been raring to get going for this year.”
The Warwick post office’s nine staff members spent 18 months making pompoms and red squares in their down time.
Only two employees knew how to crochet or knit at the beginning of their journey to Jumpers and Jazz in July but – thanks to the team’s “can do” attitude – they are now all proficient.
“If we didn’t know what to do with a needle then we would sit down here in morning times and we’d be teaching other people how to crochet,” Shauna said.
“We did three days of making pompoms in between serving customers.”
The post office even had a ‘crocheting corner’ set up last year, complete with a chair, a side table, balls of wool and knitting and crocheting needles just in case a person had 10 minutes to spare.
Shauna said that although this year was the first year Australia Post participated in the festival, it would not be the last.
“I would love to saturate the whole town in red,” she said.
“… we definitely consider ourselves as a hub of the community so I think it’s time that we start to play that role very seriously and become part of the community and its events.”
Built in 1898, the post office is renowned for its grandeur and has become a mainstay of the local community.
See the ‘yarnbombed’ Warwick Post Office for yourself at 98 Palmerin Street.
