Australia Post
postal service of Australia
Australia Post, formally the Australian Postal Corporation and also known as AusPost, is an Australian Government-owned corporation that provides postal services throughout Australia. Australia Post's head office is located on Swan Street in Richmond, Victoria.
Australia Post is the successor of the Postmaster-General's Department, which was established at federation in 1901 to formalise colonial postal services. In 1975, the department was abolished and its postal functions were taken over by the Australian Postal Commission. The organisation's current name and structure were adopted in 1989 when it was made into a government-owned corporation.
History
Colonial Australia (pre–1901)
Before colonial control of mail started in 1809, mail was usually passed on by ad hoc arrangements made between transporters, storekeepers and settlers. These arrangements were flexible, and inherently unstable. It was common for early settlers to ride many miles out of their way to deliver neighbours' mail that had been collected from informal distribution points.
On 10 July 1803, Sydney Gazette announced that boatmen travelling between Sydney and Parramatta could charge two pence, equivalent to A$1.21 in 2022, to deliver a non-government letter.
The first organisation of a postal service in Australia commenced in 1809 with the appointment in Sydney of the first postmaster.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Australia Post” as postal service of Australia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as postal service of Australia. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1142936. VIAF identifies the subject as 138883129. The Library of Congress control number is n79118114. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1975, 1989 and 1809.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Australia Post”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Australia Post primary sources, Australia Post archive and Australia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Australia Post”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Australia Post” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.