Postmaster-General's_Department

Postmaster-General's Department

Postmaster-General's Department

Australian government department, 1901–1975

This article is about the use in Australia. For the general use, see Postmaster General.

The Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) was a department of the Australian federal government, established at Federation in 1901, whose responsibilities included the provision of postal and telegraphic services throughout Australia. It was abolished in December 1975 and replaced by the Postal and Telecommunications Department. Two separate legal entities had been established in July 1975 to take over the department's operations: Telecom Australia (colloquially "Telecom"; later became Telstra) and Australia Post.

Quick Facts Department overview, Formed ...
Manual telephone, c. 1950. The phone and lines remained the property of the PMG.

History

The "PMG" stamp can still be found on many manhole covers, such as this one in central Perth.

The Postmaster-General's Department was created in 1901 to take over all postal and telegraphy services in Australia from the states and administer them on a national basis. The department was administered by the postmaster-general.

The first permanent secretary of the department was Sir Robert Townley Scott, who held office from 1 July 1901 until his retirement on 31 December 1910.

In its first 25 years, the department grew from 6,000 to 10,000 offices and from 18,000 to 47,000 staff.[2] Earnings grew from £2.4 million to £10 million per annum.[2]

In mid-1975 the department was disaggregated into the Australian Telecommunications Commission (trading as Telecom Australia) and the Australian Postal Commission (trading as Australia Post). In 1993 the Spectrum Management Agency was formed to take responsibility of radio and television broadcast licensing, which was then merged into the Australian Communications Authority, that later became the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Telecom Australia changed its name to Telstra in 1995 and has since been privatised.

Abolition

The department was abolished in December 1975 by the Fraser government, and replaced by the Postal and Telecommunications Department.[3] The change was intended to take account of the increase in the functions of the department to include all electronic media matters which had previously been the responsibility of the Department of the Media.[3]

List of postmasters-general

More information Order, Portrait ...

List of departmental secretaries and directors-general

See also

References

  1. [1]
    "CA 9: Postmaster-General's Department, Central Administration", National Archives of Australia, retrieved 9 February 2021
  2. [2]
    "Federation- 25 Years' Achievements Reviewed: Commonwealth Problems". The Canberra Times. 21 October 1926. p. 8.
  3. [3]
    Fraser, Malcolm (18 December 1975). "MAJOR CHANGES IN MINISTERIAL AND DEPARTMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND FUNCTIONS" (Press release). Archived from the original on 11 January 2014.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Postmaster-General's_Department, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.