Joan Harrison

In remembrance. My mum Joan Harrison was one of the many thousands of Australian women who stepped up in WW2 to work in a job that had been traditionally reserved for a man. She worked for the PMG (Post Master General) delivering mail in Brisbane, Queensland. My grandfather had already taught her to drive but never to change a tire or do anything mechanical. She loved the opportunity to drive, learn how to fix a vehicle, read maps, practise first aid and hone her navigation skills in city traffic to pick up and drop off mail bags. The salary was half that paid to a man doing the same work. There was an expectation that women would give up their jobs when the men returned. The war changed women’s role in the economy and led to a movement of feminists demanding equality. My mum was one of them.

After the war ended she and my dad opened the first “official” post office in Blaxland, NSW. Besides the complexities of running a banking, telegraphic and postal service, at the end of the day she tossed a mail bag over her shoulder, climbed the pedestrian stair bridge over to the railway station and delivered it to the guard in the mail van at the end of the passenger train. The mail bag was tagged TPO for travelling post office. In those days the letters were sorted on the train heading west to Lithgow or Forbes. On the return trip to Sydney a bag of sorted local mail was dropped off around 4:00 AM. She was happy to delegate the job of mail bag delivery to eager teens wanting work in the 1960’s.