FILM AUSTRALIA COLLECTION

WS pan across wide suburban streets to sentinel style post box standing on edge of parkland strip between streets. Zoom into post box. Cut to steam train travelling towards and past camera and interior view of letters in sacks and in wire pigeonholes in rail carriage. CU to stack of letters in box with voice-over reading a personal letter out. Air to air view of plane flying and internal view of mail bags in hold. CU stacks of letters with voice-over reading out business letter. GS funnel and life boats of ship with top shot over sea mail in sacks in ship's hold and voice-over of woman reading out letter to distant relative. VS handlers on station platform unloading bags of mail from train, from aircraft and from ship via crane lowering mail in net down to dock workers. High angle shot over GPO Sydney. GS mail truck arriving at GPO depot.

VS workers unloading mailbags from back of trucks into chutes. GS mail more trucks arriving at GPO depot. MS men calling out suburb names and GS mailbags on conveyor belts which are then opened, emptied and sorted. GS manual separation of letters and packages at GPO. GS letters on conveyor belt and WS down line of female workers at sorting table sorting mail into pigeonholes. WS automated sorting of packets with bins emptying packets onto conveyor belts. WS men hand sorting inward parcels into cushioned bins. MS male sorter removing damaged doll from parcel and showing co-worker. MS woman inspecting opened articles.

High angle shot over customers at GPO counter and CUs of process of registering mail with clerk crossing back and front of letter with crayon then affixing registration label. WS crowds passing through colonnaded porch of the GPO Sydney and using posting slips. GS of the public using the labelled boxes for their mail. GS other end of boxes with chutes emptying mail onto conveyor belt. VS electrical controls for chutes. VS of mail bins emptying and people posting their mail into them on the other side. VS mail on conveyor belts and electrically synchronised diverters redirecting mail. Camera on conveyor belt following progress of mail. High angle view over women sorting mail to "face up" then VS letters being passed through the stamp cancelling machine. CU to face of letter stamping machine counter. ECUs letters on machine and letter with address in window box shown to camera.

CUs mail being packed into destination trays and VS of the trays along a conveyor belt. Track through sorting rooms shot from conveyor belt. VS workers doing detailed sorting of mail including sorting into pigeonholes. Track through sorting areas. MS two men weighing mail on simple scales and MS man seated at desk stamping and weighing mail. GS mailbag being emptied in Commonwealth Dead Letter office. VS workers sitting at tables in office sorting through problem mail with CU of man sorting through badly addressed letters. ECUs to some examples. WS track through overseas mail room with workers sorting mail and MS woman sorting mail into bags marked with names of countries. CU labels.

Tilt from WS of flight board to mail sorters in Sydney GPO sorting mail into pigeonholes. CUs to mailbags with country of destination printed on them. GS sacks in pile with others being thrown on top. GS worker emptying mailbag then turning bag inside-out. ECUs Par Avion air mail stickers on international envelopes and ECUs stamps on other corner. WS trays of mail being removed from spiral conveyance system and VS postmen sorting mail into order of run. VS man at speaker calling out destinations and postmen volunteering to take on the item as it's read out. VS mailbags being secured then fed down chute. VS mail trucks being loaded then leaving GPO.

MS men loading mailbags into plane. GS mailbags being offloaded from truck onto wharf as wharfies watch. CU mailbags being lifted in cargo net off dock then tilt as it's lifted onto ship. VS mail bags being loaded onto train. Low angle GS steam train leaving station. Tracks past postmen doing final sort in post office, putting on uniforms and leaving with hats and satchels containing mail. VS line of them leaving discs on pegboard as they go past. VS procedures in mail sorting rooms seen previously and group of postmen silhouetted as they walk down city street.