A small book of 125 pages containing information, photographic images and sketches. The book is printed on buff coloured paper with a green trim around the front cover. It also includes a comprehensive bibliography. The cover features a sketch of a Cobb & Co. Coach.This booklet was produced for Victoria's sesquicentenary celebrations. It tells the story of Victorian postal services starting with the appointment of Melbourne's first official Postmaster Mr E J Foster on 13th April 1837. This position changed hands frequently and by 1851 Victoria's 8th Postmaster Alexander McCrae held the position. The construction of one of Melbourne's oldest landmarks began in three stages beginning in 1859 and was completed in 1867. The book includes developments in the mail service including by sea and overland by horseback and Cobb and Co. coaches. The mail coach contractors on the Melbourne to Albury route in 1854 was George Foster followed in 1856 by Patrick Mulcare. Other chapters in this publication include transporting the mail by rail and air as well as details about a small number of post offices and people who dedicated themselves to ensuring the mail reached its destination safely.victorian postal service, australia post history

Australia's first telephone exchange was opened in Melbourne in August 1880. It was operated by the Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company. Owned by W. H. Masters and T. T. Draper, the Manager of the Company was H. Byron Moore. This was only two years after the world's first exchange in the United States, and just four years after Bell first spoke on a telephone. The exchange was located in the old Stock Exchange building at 367 Collins Street, a site now occupied by the Commonwealth Bank. In 1884, the operations of the Company, by then known as the Victorian Telephone Exchange Company, had grown considerably and were transferred to Wills Street, Melbourne. Private ownership of this company continued until 1887 when it was bought out by the Victorian Colonial Government. Other colonial governments followed this example. By 1910, the growth in telephone services made additional accommodation necessary. This could not be provided in the existing building in Wills Street and arrangements were made for a new exchange in Lonsdale Street. Alexander Graham Bell visited Australia in 1910 to advise the Federal Government's Postal Commission. Telephone exchanges were established in Adelaide with (48 subscribers), Hobart (10 subscribers) and Launceston (35 subscribers). The first exchange in Western Australia was established in 1887 and located in a small three-room cottage in Wellington Street, Perth with 17 subscribers. The year 1888 marked the opening of the Fremantle exchange in a small room at the rear of the Town Hall. There were nine subscribers. Australia's first automatic exchange was installed in the GPO in Sydney, in 1911, for internal use. But the first automatic exchange for public use was opened at Geelong in Victoria in the next year July 1912 with 800 subscribers. Melbourne's first automatic exchange was opened in the suburb of Brighton in 1914; the first public automatic exchange in NSW began operating at Newtown, Sydney in 1915; and Queensland's first was installed at South Brisbane in 1925. 1929 saw the opening of Tasmania's first automatic exchange in Hobart. an automatic telephone service. In June 1977, the manual telephone exchange at Swansea was replaced with an automatic service and made Tasmania the first State in Australia to have a fully automatic network. The half-century following Federation saw the growth of the automatic operation; a great extension of trunk line services; The automatic telephone contributed greatly to the early popularity of telephones in Australia. It was a quicker and more convenient way of communicating with another person on the same exchange — instead of having to go through tedious processes with the operator. From its introduction, the number of automatic telephones in operation grew to a remarkable extent. In 1886, the first trunk link of 16 km was connected to the exchanges of Adelaide and Port Adelaide in South Australia. Then, in 1907, the first inter-capital telephone trunk line was opened between Sydney and Melbourne. It was followed by a line between Melbourne and Adelaide in 1914. Sydney and Brisbane were linked in 1923, and Perth and Adelaide in 1930. In 1930, the first overseas calls from Australia came possible with the introduction of a radiotelephone service to England, and through there to Europe and America. A similar service opened to New Zealand in the same year. Initially, trunk channels linked different manual trunk exchanges. It was necessary for a succession of trunk operators to connect the appropriate channels, one after the other until the connection was made. As trunk traffic grew. the system became increasingly unsuitable. More trunk operators had to be employed and so labour costs increased. It was a tedious and slow way of making a long-distance call, and it was sometimes hard to hear, particularly when several exchanges were linked With technical advances, trunk switching moved from manual operation through a partly automatic phase. Automatic transit switching equipment was used and only a single operator was required to connect a trunk call to a wanted automatic subscriber. Until well beyond the middle of this century, the majority of trunk traffic went through this single telephonist control. In 1953, the number of telephones in use in Australia passed the one million mark. By then, the need for improvement in the automatic exchanges was becoming well recognised. The need was for a telephone switching system which would do a better job more economically than the conventional step-by-step ex-change. This led to the adoption of the Crossbar system as the standard in automatic telephone exchanges in 1960. The introduction of Crossbar switching was a big step forward in the automation of trunk calls. It substituted automatic switching and charging equipment for the originating trunk operator, and improved the quality of the system radically. Before the introduction of the Crossbar system there were often very long delays in obtaining a booked trunk call, and the quality of sound was often very poor. With Crossbar, Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD) became a reality. A trunk call by STD was as easy to make and almost as fast to connect as a local call.The item was made around the 1940s and used up until the 1970s in manual cord telephone exchanges as a way to time and charge users for trunk calls made over the telecom system of the time. Post Master General dept. - Trunk Call Timer.Inscribed PMG, C. of A, 37. Bell chimes at 3 min increments.flagstaff hill, warrnambool, shipwrecked-coast, flagstaff-hill, flagstaff-hill-maritime-museum, maritime-museum, shipwreck-coast, flagstaff-hill-maritime-village, timer, trunk call, telephone, cord exchange

The Victorian Mail Network brochures, two with Official Opening of the Bendigo Mail Centre Programs. The Opening took place on Monday, 5th December, 1977.In the program are some Postal Historical notes and the program for the day. The brochure Victorian Mail Network has a map of the postal districts of Victoria with Country and Metropolitan Mail Centres and some notes on the front. On the inside, is another map from Kyneton - Echuca, Robinvale, Wentworth, Ouyen and to Bendigo via Charlton. Also Castlemaine. It has a list of the Benefits of the Scheme. On the back is a table, Standard of Service - Final posting times.bendigo, institutions, bendigo post office, document, official opening of the bendigo mail centre, the hon. eric l. robinson, m.h.r., joseph cusworth, sir john nimmo, john w henderson, r j page, cr r f turner, c g primmer, j w bourchier, b coughlan

Built by the Victorian Railways it was originally used on the postal motor service on the Wangaratta to Whitfield narrow gauge line, for the cartage of small goods. it was part of the consist that operated the last service on that line in 1953. In 1960, it was purchased from the Victorian Railways, restored and taken to Belgrave to assist in the restoration of the Puffing Billy Railway. In the mid 1960's it was classified "NGA 1". In the 1970's, it was withdrawn from regular use and dismantled.Historic - Victorian Railways narrow gauge - trolly tralier Wangaratta to Whitfield narrow gauge lineTrolly Trailer Made of metal - frames and wheels only puffing billy, victorian railways, whitfield trolley trailer, narrow gauge rolling stock, postal motor, trolly

The building is the Sunbury Post and Telegraph Office and residence, which was built on the corner of Brook and Evans Street in 1892. Prior to that time the postal service ion Sunbury was conducted at the railway station. Over the years changes and extensions have taken place to the building to accommodate it for modern postal delivery practices although it still operates from the same site.The Sunbury Post Office has operated in a building on the same site since 1892 despite many changes and extensions made to the building, which included the demolition of the residence attached to the original building.A black and white photograph of Victorian style brick building with a slate roof with 3 chimneys and surrounded by a white picket fence. Two men are standing by a ladder on the LHS of the image. sunbury, sunbury post office, post and telegraph offices

The set of seven imperial weights were used in the Post Office in Wodonga. The first Post Office in Wodonga opened on the 6th June 1856, and a second Post Office was built in 1874 on the corner of Sydney Road which became High St. and South St. In 1878 there were three staff at the Wodonga Post Office, including the Postmaster/Telegraph Manager and two Office-Keepers/Messengers. The mail service in 1878 included delivery four times a day from the Railway Station to the Post Office in Wodonga, and to and from the Wodonga Post Office to Albury twice a day.The set of seven imperial weights has local and state significance as it was used in the Wodonga Post Office in North East Victoria before decimal currency was introduced in Australia in 1966. The weights also have national significance as examples of the equipment used in post offices in Australia pre 1966.Set of seven cast iron and lead weights with imperial measurements '4 oz, 8oz, 1 lb, 2 lb, 3 lb, 4 lb, and 7 lb' The exterior circular black painted cast iron encases the heavy inner grey lead component, which is visible from the underside. "4 oz.", "8 / oz.", 1 lb.", "1 lb.", "2 lb.", "3 lb.", 4 lb.", MERCURY / 7 LB." on the top of the weights in raised numbers and letters.wodonga post office, post office, victoria post offices, wodonga, north eastern victoria post offices, victorian mail service

Minutes of the Archive committee meeting held, 11/6/1991. Minutes confirm those who attended, apologies and matters discussed at the meeting (Club Luncheon, Bulletin Distribution, 50 year certificates, Guest of Honour). Guest of honour under consideration was Mr Bruce Ruxton O.B.E., President of the Victorian R.S.L. Minutes are unsigned. Three horizontal fold marks indicates this document was to be sent to the recipient by the postal service. Email was not available at the time.The existence of the committee evidences Melbourne Legacy's commitment to preserving historical information.White paper, with black type.Legacy symbol top left hand corner. Back of document, L/R.J.Foskett, in black ink.committee, speakers