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Clip description
This clip uses music over a selection of stills and archival footage to give a summarised history of the postal service in New South Wales.
Curator’s notes
A little historical montage, this early segment of the program contains an interesting collection of stills and footage. It includes shots of Sydney and the Sydney General Post Office (GPO) in the early part of the 20th century. The GPO, designed by the NSW colonial architect James Barnet, was constructed at huge expense in stages from 1866 to 1891 and was opened in 1874. It was the Opera House of its day, influencing architecture and changing urban planning in the city blocks surrounding it. It required the resumption of St Martins Lane (now Martin Place) for a block between Pitt and George Streets. At the opening of its first stage, the Postmaster-General stated that it would ‘not be surpassed by any other similar structure in the Southern Hemisphere’.
The clip also contains stills of Manly Post Office, taken around 1949, and the newly completed Redfern Mail Exchange, taken in the mid 1960s.
