Australia Post conducted a survey after more than 600 people signed a petition for the Bendigo suburb's street mail delivery service to be expanded.

Less than 50 per cent of survey participants voted in favour of the change, meaning some Huntly residents have to retrieve their mail from the post office or rent a PO Box.

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Several Huntly residents say they didn't receive a ballot. They have raised questions about who was considered eligible to take part in the survey.

The author of the petition, Kristy Harris, was among those who did not receive a ballot.

Mrs Harris had not believed she was entitled to, as she said an Australia Post employee had advised her ballots would only be distributed to households within 1.2 kilometres of the post office.

"Households eligible to participate in this poll were those that do not currently receive a street mail or roadside delivery service," an Australia Post spokesperson said, when questioned.

"Each eligible household was sent a letter informing them about the poll, and a polling form.

"All polling forms were hand delivered to households and in the case no-one was home the letter was left in a prominent place by the front door."

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A resident in one of Huntly's new estates, who requested to remain anonymous, missed out on a ballot.

She said she had contacted Australia Post about the poll, but never received a form.

The woman had also had an older woman, who lived a few streets away, turn up at her door asking whether she had received a ballot because they had missed out.

Both Mrs Harris and the anonymous Huntly resident said they would have voted for street or roadside mail delivery, if they had been given the option.

Neither thought it was fair that Australia Post counted 'nil response' votes - ballots that had not been returned - towards the outcome of the poll.

Story continues below Australia Post policy

"As outlined in the polling letter, the notice displayed in the Huntly Post Office, reminders issued via local media, and Australia Post's Group Mail Delivery Poll Policy, if a polling form isn't returned it is taken to mean the household is happy with the existing arrangements," the Australia Post spokesperson said.

The anonymous Huntly resident said ballots had been delivered to some of the new builds in Huntly, which had yet to be occupied.

"They're never going to respond to it - they don't live there," she said.

She had also encountered concerns that a change in the mail delivery service might mean less work for the customer service representatives in the post office, leading to job losses.

"There are no implications for jobs," the Australia Post spokesperson said.

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Both Mrs Harris and the anonymous Huntly resident were curious about how many of the returned votes were in favour of change.

Thirty-nine per cent of residents voted in favour of street mail delivery service, according to Australia Post. However, its policy is to categorise votes as 'yes' or 'nil response'.

"Residents are welcome to raise any concerns they might have with Australia Post directly and we will respond accordingly," the Australia Post spokesperson said.

It is Australia Post's policy not to conduct group mail delivery polls more than once every two years, unless there are exceptional circumstances.

"If people want this, keep pushing for it," Mrs Harris said.

She did not believe people should have to fight for the right to have mail delivered to their property boundary. Mrs Harris believed the service should automatically start once a population reached a certain density.

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