Consultants Truman, Zanoil and Associates, working with Kiama Council, took paint scrapings from the building and advised keeping the existing colour scheme for Kiama's famous pink post office.

However Jim Stephany from the firm said the main pink colour is set to be "less intense and not as dark".

"We decided on the colour scheme from the last major period of development during the first decade of the 20th century," he said.

The most recent changes were the enclosing of the eastern verandah and the addition of a rear skillion roof.

The Kiama Post Office started as a light and dark brown building when it was completed in 1878 and after World War II, it was painted an off-white colour.

So when Australia Post chose a vibrant salmon colour in 1984, it came as a shock.

Jerrara resident Jane De La Vega, who collected 600 signatures on her petition against the colour change in 1984, said Australia Post decided on the colour scheme without using consultants.

"I got a letter from the director of the Department of Housing and Construction saying that they did not approve of the colour scheme and were unhappy about providing the paint," she said.

Helen Stavely, who signed the petition at the time, said the issue represented an awakening for Kiama.

"People got really excited and tried to make their voices heard, which wasn't really a Kiama thing then," she said.

"They didn't make a rabble about much until then."

Fran Whalan, who was the Kiama and District Historical Society's secretary at the time, said residents mistook the pink re-paint for the undercoat at first.

"It was a shock in those times because people thought heritage meant green tiles and white walls," she said.

"In actual fact, a lot of the early buildings would have been limewashed with cochineal bugs crushed in to get the pink colour."

Also thinking the post office's new look was an undercoat was retired postmaster David Kirkman, who passed it every day on his way to the Wollongong general post office.

"I asked them when they were going to finish and they said that was the colour," he said.

When Mr Kirkman became postmaster at Kiama several months after the re-paint, he became the one to answer public queries while running the office - mail was still sorted there at the time.

"When we explained that (pink) was one of the colours used on public buildings in early times, people settled down after a while."