Tristan : Postcode Not So New For Tristan
Submitted by Tristan Times (Juanita Brock) 10.08.2005 (Current Article)

One of the nice things about having a Tristanian working for SARTMA is that the record can be set straight about various things, including the Island’s postcode. TDCU 1ZZ has been available for at least 18 months.

Photo (c) James Glass Tristan Times - the building that houses the Tristan Post Office

POSTCODE NOT SO NEW FOR TRISTAN

An Editorial by J. Brock (SARTMA-TdC)

Tristan's Administration Building where the Post Office is housed.

One of the nice things about having a Tristanian working for SARTMA is that the record can be set straight about various things, including the Island’s postcode.  TDCU 1ZZ has been available for at least 18 months and as early as April 2004 I have used it to help differentiate between Scotland and Tristan.  Indeed, people on the Island have said that Tristanians, their families, as well as families and friends living overseas have used the postcode for a long time before that.  The advertisement for the Short Guide to Tristan da Cunha, written by Anne Green and James Glass contains the Tristan Postcode, as well as a story on Tristan Times about snail mail. 

Today I got an enquiry from the BBC about the postcodes through the Tristan Times Online website, which that news agency visited quite frequently since it came on line in 2003.  I wondered why this subject was so important now.  It seems that it is not the postcode but it is the fact that an item ordered over the internet (it’s not clear if it was ordered from the Island) reached its buyer.

I, too, have run afoul of those pesky Internet forms.  Before South Atlantic Islands received their postcodes I used to put BR1 T1SH in the place provided.  It worked. 

Now, lets solve that other problem – cheaper Internet access from Tristan so that one doesn’t have to pay a small fortune for an item valued at only a few Pounds Sterling.