In England. Letter Receivers had been traditionally provided in the Receiving Houses or Post Offices. However, the concept of providing Posting Boxes or "Pillar Boxes" at convenient roadside locations was not introduced until 1851 when Anthony Trollope, later to be one of the Postal Surveyors and a famous novelist, installed the first box at St. Helier on the Channel Island of Jersey. He had noted that they had been successful in several European countries and, with the advent of adhesive postage stamps for the prepayment of postage, there was no longer a need to visit a Post Office to pay in cash. With Uniform Penny Postage having been introduced in 1840, the general public was making greater use of the postal service.

By September 1853, the first street posting box was installed at Carlisle on the English "mainland". The first six boxes were installed in London in 1855.

Early New South Wales

The first iron letter receivers in New South Wales were installed in the Receiving Houses of Sydney and its suburbs in 1856. The first was installed at Circular Quay. Others replaced some of the earlier Receiving Houses. These boxes were designed by T. W. Levinge of the New South Wales Postmaster General's Department and initially manufactured by Robert Bubb and Son of Pyrmont. Based upon a Belgian design, the boxes were circular with a Crown mounted upon the dome. The Crown was supported by "leaves".

An amendment to the NSW Postal Act in 1867 proscribed the severe maximum penalty of £50 to those convicted of damaging or destroying letter boxes.

A unique form of box was installed in Sydney in the 1890s. It was octagonal in shape and had provision for advertisements that could be studied in the light of an inbuilt gas lamp.

Early Victoria

Like their British counterparts, mail in the Australian colonies was originally collected by the letter carriers as they made their daily rounds.

The first letter carrier was appointed in Melbourne in 1841 and equipped with a leather bag and hand bell, he delivered and probably collected mail for the citizens of Melbourne. He must have looked a smart figure in his red cloth coat with brass buttons and black beaver or silk top hat.

The postal service was slow to expand beyond Melbourne to its future inner suburbs so the residents of Collingwood and Fitzroy appointed their own private letter carrier, Peter O'Flaherty, in 1847 to make two trips daily to the Melbourne Post Office.

During 1844, two wooden receiving boxes were erected in Melbourne, one at each end of town and were cleared twice per day except Sunday. The boxes were not Street Posting Boxes but would have been installed at Receiving Houses.

The first cast iron box was installed in Emerald Hill (South Melbourne) and saw service until 1967. These first boxes were made in England and was a circular fluted design.

The second type of street posting box to be employed in Victoria was introduced early in the 1860's. Referred in later years by the mail clearance drivers as the "low door round", this box was circular and surmounted by a crown. The clearance door was set low down in the front of the box. Two broad embossed bands were provided around the circumference.

It was replaced in the early 1870's by the square type box with the tapering top. Photographs of early Melbourne dated 1871 show a box of this type installed in Bourke Street at the corner of Exhibition Street. Both this type and the circular crowned boxes were made in Australia and are the types generally thought of when reference is made to "historical boxes".

Many minor varieties exist in connection with the square tapered box depending upon the manufacturer. Some boxes exist with vertical slots, others with horizontal slots. One variety has two slots, one for letters, the other for newspapers.

The square type boxes were succeeded in turn by a circular, domed model very similar to the "low door round". The main difference was in the clearance door that extends upwards to a point just below the posting slot. It was later colloquially referred to as the "high door round". The boxes did not have embossed bands.

Small cast iron boxes fitted with straps to attach them to poles were known as "lamp post receivers" and were introduced in 1887. The early boxes were quite narrow but later versions were wider. These were the predecessors of the first "modern" boxes which were initially of a similar design but made of pressed steel and introduced about World War I.

An uncommon variety in use in Victoria is the "London" model. Made in Tasmania, it was copied from the big, flat-domed type in general use in London. Imported versions are also known. These were circa 1930.

A variant of the squared tapered type was the first of the multi-bag models. These were originally introduced to enable an initial sorting of the mail by the sender. The breakup was (depending upon the size) was typically for letters and newspapers or letters, interstate/overseas letters/ newspapers.

However, the break up was discontinued about the 1960's due to the extra workload required not being supported by the correctness of use.

Before 1975, the Royal Cipher was used as an identity symbol by the Postmaster General's Department. With the formation of Australia Post, the Royal Cipher was dropped and the "P" symbol and the Australia Post trading name became the sole means of corporate identification.

Following the election of a new Commonwealth Government, the use of the Royal Cipher was reinstated in 1976 and was used with the corporate logo.

With the change of Government in 1983, the cooperation of Australia Post was sought in displaying symbols of national unity. It was agreed that the Coat-of-Arms would replace the Royal Cipher on posting boxes, mail vehicles and buildings. The Royal Cipher was to be retained on property of historical significance.

In 1989, Australia Post was changed to a Government Business Enterprise. In common with other Government Business Enterprises, the use of the Coat-of-Arms also seems to be fading away.

Extracted from “Australian Street Posting Boxes” by Ken Sparks – out of print