An educational film about the Australian postal service. Small number of scenes of Manly beach and streets, Sydney city including Sydney General Post Office and the main street of Bathurst, and several suburban streets in Bathurst, where the mail is posted by a little boy in Manly, then sorted and delivered to his friend in Bathurst. An old steam train, loading and unloading the train with the mail and internal scenes of postal workers. A uniformed postman walks up a dusty path past houses with picket fences and typical wire and iron front gate, on the outskirts of an Australian country town, in summer, timber power pole with street name "William" is on the corner and the postman blows his whistle as he puts mail in a letter box, and takes more mail from his large canvas satchel that is carried over his shoulder. A close up of the postman, he is wearing a Post Masters Generals (PMG) hat. Hands hold letter addressed to Master John Field 17 William Street Bathers 3W. Small boy in jumper 1940's style boys shorts long socks and lace up shoes leaves a small weather-board house with built in veranda on one side of the front door which has a fly wire screen door and a cyclone wire and iron gate and wire and timber fence, and walks down the street footpath. Boy crosses the road to the Manly beach with its Norfolk pine trees and picnic tables and ocean in the background and the occasional person walking or sitting. Men in suits and women in hats in the street as the boy walks along the Manly promenade, there are some early high rise buildings and a cliff to the sea in the background. The boy walks into the art deco style Manly Post Office, past people. In street. The boy is seen through the door of the post office entering the door, and the street and old cars are briefly visible. A man in a cardigan behind the counter looks up and greets the boy. The little boy passes over his money. The post office clerk opens his stamp book and flicks through the pages. The clerk passes a stamp to the boy. The boy wets the stamp on a damp song which is on the counter of the post office in a glass dish, thumps it with his clench fist and moves away form the counter. He leaves through the double heavy glass and timber doors. The boy walks from the post office door and along the footpath towards the post office exterior wall that has many private letter boxes, and the letter boxes for posting mail, which include the Sydney mail clearing times. The boy post his letter in the slot and peers in, them walks away. The back of the letter boxes are seen from within the post office and an employee approaches with a cane basket and opens the cupboard type doors that expose all the posted mail. The letter to John Field is held up. The sorter collects all the letters and places them in the basket, and closes the doors. A young clerk is seen feeding letters into the Manly postmarking machine, another staff member is in the background working. There is a close up of the franking machine and a hand takes out some of the post marked letters. Johns letter is held up now post marked. An staff member is tying up bundles of letters and placing hem in a large canvas mail bag of which he ties the top. The face of the young mail worker is shown. He ties the string around the top of the mail bag and camps the metal seal. Two post office workers carry two mail bags into the back lane where the uniformed post office van driver overseas the loading of the mail bags and makes notes in a note book, he closes the vans back doors and is seen walking to the front of the van. The van pulls out of the lane beside the white art deco Manly Post office building. The van is driven up a steep slope with tree and vegetation and the sea as the backdrop in north shore suburban Sydney. The van is in traffic which includes a double deck bus and old car on the Sydney harbour bridge. The exterior of the Sydney General Post Office is seen from the opposite corner, with other old Victorian buildings and people and cars and trucks in the smart city. PMG vans and open tray trucks pull into the lane beside the GPO and people and cars are in the street, including suited men carrying Gladstone bags. There is view of the Sydney GPO in detail.

• published: 21 Oct 2014
• views: 1