Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This black-and-white television advertisement shows historic images of communications development in Australia prior to 1975, and a narrator informs the Australian public of the creation of two new commissions, Australia Post and Telecom Australia. Early images, including the first Australian stamp and a rural post office, are accompanied by leisurely harmonica music. Upbeat orchestral music accompanies images of mechanised mail sorting and modern telecommunications. The logos for the new organisations are prominently displayed.

Educational value points

• The clip shows the way the Australian Government used the language of advertising to promote changes to the Postmaster General’s Department (PMG). The film begins with images and music from colonial times. Successive images of new technologies are first laid over and then replace the earlier versions. An increase in the tempo of the music also helps to convey the idea of progress and the need to 'keep pace’ with Australia’s changing needs.

• A brief history of Australian postal and telephonic communication services is presented in a narrative celebrating the idea of progress. From the opening bush landscape and the narrator talking of 'slower times’ to the images of a satellite dish, mail-sorting machine and modern telephone exchange, the film’s narrative is one of an Australia changing and growing under the guiding hand of an Australian Government that embraces new technologies.

• The 1901 Australian Constitution gave the Australian Government exclusive power over all postal, telegraphic, telephonic and 'other like services’. A 1973 Commission of Inquiry recommended restructuring the PMG’s remaining areas of responsibilities.

• The PMG was split and restructured in 1975 to save costs and make necessary improvement in the operation of both telecommunications and the postal service. The creation of two independent Statutory Corporations, Telecom Australia and Australia Post, was designed to improve efficiencies in mail handling and to allow significant investment of capital into the complex technology required by the growing telephone network.

• Australia’s responsiveness to changing needs has sometimes led to the nation being a world leader in communications. A prepaid postage system introduced in New South Wales predated the first adhesive postal stamp produced in Britain by about two years. Sydney’s Mail Exchange was the first all-mechanised one in the world. In 1962 Australia was one of a small group of countries investigating the use of satellites in international communication.

• The telegraph network referred to in the clip was vital in Australia to reduce the isolation of its people. The first telegraph line was constructed in 1854 from Melbourne to Williamstown. Melbourne was linked with Adelaide and Sydney in 1856. The Overland Telegraph Line connected Australia via a submarine cable from Darwin to Java and with the British telegraph network in 1872. An undersea cable linked Australia and New Zealand in 1876.

• Early telephone exchanges are seen in the clip. Soon after its invention in 1876, early experiments with the technology were made in Australia. In 1880 the first telephone exchange with 44 subscribers opened in Melbourne. By Federation, 22,310 telephone services operated in Australia, mostly in the capital cities. A long-distance system grew slowly. With the development of wireless in the 1920s, international telephone transmission became possible.