FILM AUSTRALIA COLLECTION

Title Details

Through the Post

An overview of Australian postal services, showing how mail is handled through the General Post Office in Sydney.
Year : 1936 | Total Duration : 10 Minutes |
Archival footage of horse-drawn coach with passengers looking out windows and waving to camera. High angle shot of homestead, man on horse back crossing river, and horse-drawn cart across field. Man getting into car in front of homestead. Tilt to steam train towards camera over bridge. Postal worker in uniform and cap walking past trolleys laden with mailbags. Young postal assistant moving bags around. WS ocean liner with smoke coming from funnels and LS to Sydney Harbour Bridge POV boat on harbour. VS unloading bags of mail being unloaded on wharf by men. High angle shot of mail bags being lifted from ship in net sling. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 4982 | 1 min 18 secs | 1930s | Australia | © Contact Film Australia Collection Library | B&W |
Men in braces loading mail bags into waiting trucks. Twin propeller plane taxiing toward camera. People alighting from plane and milling on tarmac and two uniformed men carrying mail bags from plane. GS postman collecting mail from cylindrical mail box on street then getting into PMG truck. WS Martin Place, Sydney with GPO in left of frame, cars parked rear to kerb and pedestrians. MS several people posting letters at GPO into many brass slots in the wall. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 4986 | 36 secs | 1930s | Australia | © Contact Film Australia Collection Library | B&W |
Interior shot of posted letters falling onto conveyor belt. MS cascade of letters from chute onto conveyor belt and CUs past camera. CUs of machinery used to control movement of mail in GPO and GS of man in control room operating levers. Letters shooting out from hatches onto moving conveyor belt. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 4995 | 33 secs | 1930s | Australia | © Contact Film Australia Collection Library | B&W |
CUs of people posting letters in special banks of brass posting boxes labelled as ÒCountryÓ or ÒInterstateÓ. WS chute unloading mail onto conveyor belt. VS mail being transported on belt. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 5001 | 57 secs | 1930s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © Contact Film Australia Collection Library | B&W |
Slow pan of postal workers at bench sorting mail into piles. GS two men feeding mail into machine which postmarks over stamp. CU of counter recording the number of letters processed per minute. MS letters being put through sorting device and GS letters in trays on conveyor belt and over rollers to the sorting room. Good slow track down rows of mail sorters sitting on stools and VS placing letters into pigeon holes. CU of under-paid letter being stamped. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 5007 | 1 min 42 secs | 1930s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © Contact Film Australia Collection Library | B&W |
MS mailroom workers sitting at bench sorting letters into pigeonholes. CUs of badly addressed letters headed for Dead Letter Office. CU postal worker at desk opening envelope and finding money posted in badly addressed letters. Avalanche of newspapers slowly feeding onto conveyor belt. CU men sorting through packages and CU of parcel with damaged cupie doll in crushed box being opened. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 5018 | 3 mins 27 secs | 1930s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © Contact Film Australia Collection Library | B&W |
High angle shot over conveyor belt with parcels and newspapers. MS pan of workers sorting mail into sacks labelled with often exotic foreign destinations. Postal worker with back to camera seen through wired windows sorting registered mail into pigeon holes. VS mail workers bundling letters and sorters and placing them into canvas mail bags labelled with destinations, tying bags and sealing them. CU labelled and sealed bags on conveyor belt past camera slowly. GS men despatching bags down shutes and MS men loading them into truck. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 5026 | 1 min 56 secs | 1930s | Sydney, NSW, Australia | © Contact Film Australia Collection Library | B&W |
High angle shot of steam train towards and past camera. GS PMG mail van backing up to Royal Mail plane on tarmac. WS postal workers loading mail from truck into plane with small boy standing in doorway of plane. Track of biplane taking off. CUs controls in cockpit and aerials POV plane over misty mountain ranges. PMG truck past camera and LS to postman delivering mail in suburban street. CU postman delivering mail and greeting woman at her door as he presents her with registered letter to sign for. Quicktime clip available.
Access No. 5037 | 1 min 17 secs | 1930s | Australia | © Contact Film Australia Collection Library | B&W |