Description of series:
This series contains mainly general correspondence, including letter received and copies of letter sent, contracts, agreements and sketch maps of routes covered by the contract mail services that formerly operated under contract in various parts of Queensland.
History Prior/Subsequent to Transfer:
"Prior to Transfer-" The accession contains records of both Mail and Porterage services, Sets 1 & 2. In general there appears to be little difference between a Mail Service and a Porterage Service. Both can cover the collection and delivery of mail however. - (A) A Mail service usually operates over a longer route, which entails delivery to a large number of private homes. (b) A Porterage service usually operates over a shorter route and in some cases may only entail the clearance of a box and delivery to the nearest official Post Office. The Services in this accession cover many different parts of
Queensland.
Note, the number of a Contract Mail or Porterage service, which has ceased to operate is then given to a new service. Thus there may be two or more completely different services bearing the same number, but over different periods of time.
This series contains 2 different systems of arrangement:
- Annual single number with a 'F' (fixed term contract) prefix.
- Single number series (denoting mail service contract number) with a 'F' prefix.
Although all files are also marked with a single number (denoting mail service contract number) with a 'M' (Mail Service) or 'P' (Porterage Service) prefix. This latter system is similar to all the other series of mail service files stored with National Archives, Brisbane.
In first system of control, correspondence was date and numbered stamped when received by the agency. The later correspondence within the file was stamped and these were then used as the final file number (eg.F1945/555).
Administrative information
The following data was keyed from the paper documentation:
Form number: CA 17
Creating department: POST MASTER GENERAL'S, POSTAL SERVICES, RECORDS
Transferring department: POST MASTER GENERAL'S, POSTAL SERVICES, RECORDS
Date of transfer: 26/04/1953
Archives file number: RWB14/1/4