Frankie

I was working in Melbourne doing pool and spa leak detection

• plumbing kind of stuff – but had a kid and decided it was time
  to move back to my hometown in the country. The town is pretty
  small, and I couldn’t transfer what I was doing into the country
  lifestyle very easily. But my parents used to own the post office,
  so being a postman was something I could do full-time.
  Typically, I start around 7am, sorting the mail and parcels and
  that sort of stuff. On a Monday, it’s a lot busier, because you get
  two to three days’ worth of mail in one hit. (And even more when
  there’s a public holiday.) Once it’s all sorted – hopefully by about
  10am – delivery starts. Depending on the day and how much mail
  there is, I’m done any time between 1pm and 4pm. Three days
  a week, I deliver mail to all the farms and stations on the outskirts
  of town, using a ute because it’s 160 kilometres away. It can be
  a little bit lonely sitting in the car on my own for three hours,
  but podcasts and music are handy – it’s my time to switch off.

It’s great having very flexible hours – as long as the mail is

delivered by 5pm every day, it doesn’t really matter what time

I do it. Having a family, that really appeals to me. I get to come

home for lunch every now and then, and spend time with my kid

before I go back to work. I’m the only postie in town, so if I have a

day off or something, my dad will get on the bike and do it instead.

To become a postman, you need a police check and a motorbike

and driver’s licence. Driving around is pretty much 80 per cent of

the job. Apart from that, you need to work out if you’re cut out for it

or not. It’s pretty repetitive, and that can make it mentally draining

at times – there’s not a lot of problem-solving or critical thinking

involved. The weather can be a bit of a challenge, too. If you get

a bit of rain it’s slippery on the bikes, and temperatures can drop

below zero here. I’ve got a good jacket that keeps me fairly warm,

but your hands get pretty cold.

After a few months in this job, I pretty much knew everyone

I was delivering mail to. I’m not sure if that would happen so

much in the city. I’ve had a few people complain, saying, “Can you

not drive on my lawn?”, but their mailbox is in the middle of the

lawn, so what do they want me to do? If I got off and walked every

time, nothing would ever get delivered. Generally, people are quite

friendly, though. Living in such a small town, there’s a lot of old

people – they get lots of mail because they aren’t up-to-date with

technology. The mail has definitely been scaled back because

of email, but with online shopping on the rise, parcels are

the new thing.

The whole idea of ‘going postal’ is a misconception, I think, but

you do get animosity from dogs. Mostly it’s little dogs yapping at

you, but I’ve been nipped at by a big mastiff, and actually got bitten

once. I was delivering a parcel and the dog flipped out and bit me.

Luckily, I was wearing reasonably protective gear – the motorbike

is pretty fast, too, so you can usually get away.

People are a little surprised when I tell them what I do. It would

be nice to see a few more young posties around. The best thing

is when you’re delivering a parcel for a little kid or something like

that. They get excited when they open the door, it’s a lot of fun.

on the job

TIM JACKSON IS A POSTMAN

IN A COUNTRY TOWN.

As told to Emma Do

Photo

Courtney Jackson

nine to five