And so, the long road comes to an end. Or an intersection. Cul de sac? Dead end? After 31 years with Australia Post, today is my last day. It’s been a decision long in the making although I really only decided to make the jump 5 or 6 months ago. Some have said I am crazy but most at work have been supportive. I think it is the right decision.
I started work at the Canberra mail centre in August 1987. August 7 to be exact and it was quite a culture shock for a kid, hopeless at school and feeling he was better off in the workforce, to find himself in the hodgepodge of buildings on Canberra Avenue which disguised itself very well as Canberra’s mail exchange. I started my first training week at 6am (ouch!) and it snowed! It is one memory which burned itself, perhaps not surprisingly, into my brain which I have never forgotten.
I can remember, after 8 weeks in a training school, my first week as a mail officer in operational conditions, sorting a letter for Limeburners Creek and not having any idea where it went. I took a guess and later found out it was wrong. I have often wondered over the years if that person cursed Australia Post when their letter arrived a week late! Luckily, my sorting improved from there!
I had just turned 17 when I started with Post so I have grown up in the place, lived, loved, learnt about life, made mistakes and come out a better person on the flip side. It’s been a privilege to work with a wide variety of people from different backgrounds and cultures over the years and, in varying degrees, getting to know them. The place has changed a lot. From hand sorting to mechanisation and halfway back again but today is not the day to complain or quibble about the service or the way it is run. This is just to say thanks and good luck to all who remain.
The mail centre moved from it’s original location opposite the railway station about three months after I started and has been positioned on the corner of Nyrang Street and Canberra Avenue ever since. 31 years. It’s a long time. The postal service, despite reports to the contrary still plays a major role in the life of every Australian. You only have to read the feedback columns in online newspapers when things go wrong with the post to see it. The faces and the names change but Post will go on without me. And, I will survive without it.
So, to a new beginning, daunting but exciting. I don’t know where the road will lead but I am looking forward to shining a light along the path ahead. Cheers to all my colleagues out there today sorting, delivering, or serving customers. Australia couldn’t do without you!
Thanks.
Strange Notations From a Laborious Life 