The following information has been reproduced with permission from the book
‘RURAL‘ (R U Ready for A Life Change), page 51, by author Bernie Webb.
RURAL-Letter-Boxes.pdf (PDF, 229KB)
Rural and special rural mail deliveries are usually performed by Australia Post or one of their sub-contractors and in both cases the preferred vehicle is a car. If you look after your friendly, local mail deliverer they will look after you. By ‘look after’ I mean have a decent sized letter box big enough for an A4 envelope or larger to fit in without folding. Install the letterbox on the right-hand side of your driveway, as you face your front gate from the road and no less than 2.5 m out from your gate (Figure 55 below).
The letterbox also needs to be of the correct height, around 1.1 m from the ground to the delivery slot and close to the edge of the drive. With your letterbox similarly sited, your local mail delivery agent will be able to easily pull up to your letterbox and deposit mail into it without having to exit their car. To check the correct location of your letterbox simply drive up to it, with your front gate shut and pass a letter out of your car window into the letterbox. If this is easy to achieve – mission accomplished. If not, adjust letterbox position to a more ideal location. The addition of your rural number and/or your surname on the front of the letterbox is also an added advantage for the postie and any visitors.
Why are you going to all this trouble just to put up a letterbox? Well, we have found over the years that if you make it easy for the postie to deliver your mail they will often go that bit extra to deliver it, maybe driving up to the house with larger items or to obtain a signature for registered mail, instead of us having to drive to the post office to pick it up. Be aware that Australia Post contractors are not permitted to leave their vehicles unattended while they have undelivered mail on board, so if you hear them beep their horn, you need to go out to them.
Figure 55 Location of the letter box, at least 2.5 m out from front gate.
