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Clip description
This clip shows mail officers in a range of mail-sorting work at mail exchanges and mail centres.
Curator’s notes
Australia Post’s mail officers in 1989 were the group of employees who were most subjected to changes in the way in which mail was delivered in Australia, brought about by technological innovation. Mail officers performed mail-sorting tasks such as working at indexing desks, operating mail processing machinery, sorting mailbags and driving forklifts. As these types of jobs didn’t require high levels of English language proficiency, a large percentage of mail officers employed by Australia Post were migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds.
Some of these employees, starting at the bottom in the 1980s and working their way up, found themselves in ideal positions to purchase and/or manage LPOs (Licensed Post Offices) – privately owned post offices operated under contract to Australia Post – in the mid-1990s when Australia Post’s Licensed Post Office Agreement replaced the former Post Office Agency Agreement.
