When 71-year-old Peter Thompson began working as a postie in 1981, he was issued with a local route, a shoulder bag, and a dog whistle.

Eventually, shoulder bags were phased out for more ergonomically friendly solutions, and dog whistles also quickly became a tool of posties past. But the social aspects of the job? Those remained intact for years.

“Many of the streets on my run were only about 25-foot wide (7.6 metres), so people on both sides of the street could hear you and would come out. A lot of them were at the gate when you got there, so there was plenty of chatting,” says Thompson.

The history of Australia’s posties dates back well before Thompson’s days. The country’s first postmaster was a former convict, Isaac Nichols, who, in 1809, used his home to sort the mail he collected from ships arriving in Sydney Harbour.

It was likely a much lonelier career than Thompson’s. When he joined Australia Post, his colleagues sorted their mail by hand before setting out on foot to make deliveries.

“The mail came in great bags which we’d empty out and first sort into eight different beats. Then, each postman would come around and grab their mail and put it on large tables with what they used to call ‘plugs’, which had the street names on them. You had to manually grab the letters and put it into Smith Street, or James Street and so on,” he says.

‘The exercise is part of why I like it, but I also love the degree of autonomy.’

Peter Thompson, Australia Post

It was a social occasion.

“The eight large tables were all roughly belly button height, and we could all see each other and talk as we sorted the first- and second-class mail,” Thompson says.