Outer suburb. Still life with retro car, take-away - burgers, fish and chips etc (with 'non-traditional', whatever that is, shop keepers,)  and remnants of a post office site. Fish and chip shops were often operated by people of Mediterranean descent but those older generations have retired, or by Anglos. 

 1920 Wollombi General Store and agent for Savings Bank.
Below: in 1913. 

June 2011,  agent for Australia Post.

For sale. Broke Village Store.
It's full on - Fuel, Beer on tap, Bottle shop, Post Office, The Willows Cafe Restaurant, Take Aways, Fruit and vegies, Clothing for the motorcyclist, newspapers.
Cigaretts are on sale which, by law, are not on display, are held in a closed cupboard, (shown in the photo) and the packets have health warnings and, I believe, pictures of deadly disease as a consequence of smoking, and soon, brand names will be banned from the packaging.  A company stated they would sue the government about the removal of the brand names and billions of dollars would be involved. Rejoice all lawyers - more business is heading in your direction. They can usually drum up litigation.
Several legal cases have been in the news recently and the cry is that the tax payer (via the government) is footing the bill.  Well, hugh legal costs are a result of the legal profession which always remains blameless. 

Not looking its best, long ago, the post office in Mayfield was built some distance away from the pubs and shops. So it moved closer to the shopping centre. The police station, next door, seemed to expand into there then the police dept moved out leaving the building deserted for a long time, or so it seems. Now, new tennants are rumoured.

Ex-post office, Hunter Street, Newcastle has become a gallery: Front Room Gallery, next door to TAFE Hunter Street Art Centre for budding artists.
The post office shop is in Markettown shopping centre.

         No distance out of town and postal services are found in a multipurpose store.
From experience, books (say, a techncial edition not readily available in this country) or spares, arrive within a week from overseas after purchase on-line for lower cost than local.
The wonders of email are heralded with good reason. But look at all the email communications that are on-auto and state 'do not reply' and the contact page that is a one way thing.  E-mail is not necessarily the method of choice between business and outsiders.
There is no expectation that a professional would engage in email correspondence but even email to a specific department about upcoming arrangments, for example, and other pertinent instances, free of raves, are lucky to elicit a reply.

Adamstown Post Office 2289 with postwoman.

For Sale again,  a mail exchange of some sort operated for a time in Hudson Street, Hamilton.

Junction Post Office moved from the corner of Union Street to a nearby shopping centre in which it changed from one spot to the current shop.

Darby Street, Cooks Hill, where the public phones 'point to' a former post office. Coffee culture has moved in along there opposite the Delaney.

Waratah Post Office building has become some quiet low-key business into men's health and the post office has moved to Waratah village shopping centre.

It is fortunate that the episode recorded in the film, 127 Hours, is the work of an inventive film maker who does very well with it.
Apart from his individualism, the protagonist is a bright character, amazingly from a 'normal' background, free of bizarre overtones, not out to get at anyone and no one out to get at him. That's strange but true. (Not that certain bizarre characters lack appeal).
It's a man's world and boy's own adventures go on and on.
Gentlemen: take note, your children absorb your every move, just as you did with your father...'they grow (up) just like you'.

Postman. Milky lime is the new safety yellow. Lower:  Merewether Post Office 2291, original, with public or pay phone and postboxes outside the door.
Small motorbikes are petrol misers. No pronouncements or leadership from the top, ever mention outright serious saving of energy or reduction in consumption.  It is as if we pay some new tax and continue with unabated consumption.

A survivour of the 1989 Newcastle earthquake, on the right, Newcastle Post Office building is not in use.  Long term survival of the building is more of a problem.
The current state government has purchased the building back from an investor, and has made some moves around parts of the old town that are in need of rescue. 

Now the post office has a new address several blocks away on the old site of Doyles wine and bottle shop.

Lambton Post Office.  From double story colonial building, the post office moved into the newsagent plus post office, in Elder Street, Lambton. 

Near the corner of Lambton and Bronte Road, Broadmeadow, post boxes are a reminder of a postal exchange that once occupied the site. Right there or close by.

It is shameful  that this country has an island prison full of prisoners in transit seeking a life in Australia. That's Christmas Island.
Light-hearted Christmas Island series of stamps for the festive season picture a gift bound by flowers native to the Island and a Frigatebird all part of unique natural heritage in those  tropical climes.

(See http://shop.auspost.com.au/collections/stamps-issues)  The island once had its own postage stamps.
The island is a small territory of Australia, way off the coast, 2600 km NW of Perth WA,  and 360 km south of Jakarta Indonesia, with 135 square kms of land and a few people.

It is a prison in the middle of nowhere, but close enough to S.E. Asia to promote illegal ill-fated sea voyages by refugees..
It is all part of the broader picture of mass-migration and deserves a global response.
In discontinuity, without a global perspective, our leaders have been very mean spirited and have fostered selfish possessive attitudes when communities are objecting to the prospect of building decent facility for immigrants anywhere near them.
These are not words from a 'bleeding heart'. Sure, uncontrolled migration is undesirable but still needs to be handled by humanitarians. And despite the fact that some people may leave for a journey to Australia just because they can. 
The Howard government excised Christmas Island from the Australian Migration Zone meaning that refugees arriving there could not automatically apply for refugee status and a prison was set up there.
An undertaking we can be very proud of - not.  Leadership and wisdom beyond compare. I was full of disbelief at the amazing solutions undertaken by our governments.

Australia Post moment.

Celebrating the screen legends to mark Australia Day .
I'm never sure what to make of Nicole but she did quite well in the adventure movie Australia.

Philatelic Tourisimo. Posties were brushing up on their riding skills. Australia Post uses almost exclusively, I believe, Honda CT110ccs, so, no wonder, Honda Australia (The Power of Dreams) rider training unit was busy with the class.