Many of Australia Posts services in North Queensland are returning following cyclone Larry which devastated parts of North Queensland on Monday.   Power failures and road closures due to fallen trees and flooding will continue to impact some areas over the coming days.  Disruption to landline and mobile phone services has made information difficult to obtain in some cases.

Information changes regularly, however, the latest information as of Wednesday morning (March 22) is:

Mail delivery to North Queensland: The Bruce Highway remains closed to all vehicles between Tully and Gordonvale due to a significant number of fallen power lines and trees. There has been no mail by road from southern areas since the weekend. The Bruce Highway may reopen sometime later today and mail will then be transported to the Cairns Mail Centre.  However, it would be unlikely that this will be sorted in time to be despatched to all outlying areas within the region, causing delays to mail services. This may be further impacted by the road conditions in each area.  Further road closures are expected at Gordonvale with the ‘Little Mulgrave River’ peaking due to continual rain overnight.

Priority is being given to delivery and despatching of all Express Post and Express Courier International (ECI) articles wherever it is safe to do so. Street Posting  Boxes are also being cleared in areas where it is safe to collect the mail.

Innisfail - services may be disrupted for several days.  The township of Innisfail, in particular the business sector, has been severely damaged and it may take weeks before power is reinstated.  The post office suffered some damage and is not trading. Mail from Innisfail to Tully is still at the Mail Centre due to road closures and no power.

Atherton PO is open and trading. There will be outdoor deliveries made wherever possible. There has also been considerable damage in the Tablelands area, predominantly in the Eacham Shire.  There are a significant number of power lines that have been brought down in the area and it may take some time before power is reinstated.  Mareeba Post Office has power and is operating.

Cairns - all outlets have reopened in Cairns.  The delivery centre in Cairns has advised that their posties and parcel contractors are attempting delivery today.  They will deliver mail while it is safe and where mail can be left in a dry place - ie: if the letterbox has been destroyed it is unlikely the mail will be delivered to that address.  The Cairns Delivery Centre is allowing customers to collect their mail after 2:00pm in the afternoon but would encourage customers to call the contact centre on 131318 first to confirm if mail is available for collection.

Mount Sheridan PO and Cardwell PO are open though are offering limited services due to communication problems. Mail delivery to PO Boxes and street deliveries is being performed at Cardwell PO.

The offices below are either closed or may be offering limited services due to power supply problems:

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