Wamboin Community Association

The Stable Door

by Ian Coillet
December 2010

Springtime happenings in Wamboin

Part 3 of a photographic record of spring in Wamboin (click on images to enlarge).

November 2010

Springtime happenings in Wamboin

Part 2 of a photographic record of spring in Wamboin (click on images to enlarge).

October 2010

Springtime happenings in Wamboin

A photographic record of spring in Wamboin (click on images to enlarge).

August 2010

LETTER BOXES – What do they say about their owners? (Pt 3)

To complete the trilogy, here are the final 12 offerings of the letterbox artistry that dots our region. The bride and I recently enjoyed a short stint overseas. Among other things, I took the opportunity to do a bit of Irish letterbox spotting. So there’s a rogue entry from a posh suburb of Dublin included below; certainly ups the anti and frightened the b’geezes out of me at the time.

June 2010

LETTER BOXES – What do they say about their owners? (Pt 2)

Got a best seller here!!! ‘Give me more!’ readers scream. So, hot on the heels of Pt 1 (last month—see below) is a second offering of stylish letterboxes that adorn the gateways to our homes and arguably enrich our region. Here, you can view all the artistry in living colour and check out these reflections of our cultural diversity.

May 2010

LETTER BOXES – What do they say about their owners? (Pt 1)

No doubt you knew that last year was the 200th anniversary of Australia’s postal service?

Yes, it was in 1809 that the first Postmaster of NSW was appointed. Unsurprisingly I guess, it was a bloke, indeed an ex-convict; his name was Isaac Nichols. Isaac took the post operating from his home in George Street, Sydney. His main job was to take charge of letters and parcels arriving by ship, to avoid the chaos of people rushing onto the ships as soon as they berthed at Sydney’s wharves. Apparently, many would purport to be important people, or to have the authority to act (and therefore receive mail) on their ‘master’s’ behalf.

Postal services grew throughout the Australian colonies as they were established. Other key milestones include:

  • A regular Sydney-Melbourne overland service began in 1838.
  • Monthly steamship sea mail to the United Kingdom was established in 1856.
  • In 1901, the colonial mail systems were merged into the Postmaster General (or PMG) - responsible for telegraph and domestic telephone operations as well as postal mail.
  • The world's first large-scale mechanical mail sorting system was introduced in Australia (according to Australia Post), and operational in the Sydney GPO in 1967. This coincided with the introduction of the current system of 4-digit Postcodes in Australia.
  • On 1 July 1975, separate government commissions were created to undertake the operational responsibilities of the PMG. One of these was the Australian Postal Commission (now Corporation), trading as Australia Post.

In a belated recognition of 200 years of mail delivery (including more than 30 years to our immediate area) I present to the reader a small selection of the wizardry gracing the roadsides in our region. I leave it to you to form your opinion of the artwork and to ponder on the likely personality or multiples thereof of each artist. Given the eclectic array of the mail receptacles dotting our locality I can only imagine the challenge that besets the poor old posties as they go about their business, although, it must make for variety.

To protect the innocent (and the guilty) I have withheld the location of the artworks. And, to be fair, my own effort is included.

I hope to bring you a few more examples of the mailbox artistry dotting the region in a future issue.

23-02-2024