Geordie McDonald is taking a well-earned retirement from full-time mail delivery. Over the past 30 years, he has made more than 2.4 million deliveries and travelled 1,875,000km.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
Leonard James McDonald, otherwise known as Geordie, loves his job.
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Since he began delivering mail across the Cobram-Barooga district three decades ago, Geordie has tallied over 2.4 million deliveries and travelled an impressive 1,875,000km.
His beaming smile is familiar to many in the community who live along his delivery route, which takes him all the way from farms in Yarroweyah and Koonoomoo to Cobram’s Green Palms Village.
Now, at 76 years of age, Geordie is handing over the reins and taking a well-earned retirement from full-time mail delivery.
“I decided to retire today,” Geordie told The Courier.
“It’s just got to the stage where enough’s enough.”
Geordie left school at the age of 14, and went straight to work on his family’s Yarroweyah farm.
After some years there, he applied to become a postal delivery contractor for Australia Post, and the rest is history.
Across his work on the farm and with the Post, Geordie has had a wake-up time of 5am, seven days a week, for 12 months of the year.
With the early starts, Geordie can be forgiven for looking forward to a good sleep-in.
A typical shift for Geordie started off with his arrival at the Cobram depot, before he cracked straight to work, sorting parcels and letters before heading out on his run.
The only part of his job that he likes more than working with his colleagues is providing a reliable service to customers.
Recently, his partner, Denise, has accompanied him out on his delivery runs.
The pair has made a crack team on the road, helping each other when they can.
“She’s up with computers,” Geordie said.
“We’ve got a scanner that scans all the parcels. Sometimes, when I’m using it, something will go wrong and I won’t know how to get out of trouble.
“But she just gets it and gets it done.”
With his retirement, Geordie is looking forward to a bit of a change of pace.
With winter well and truly here, he’s made plans to head somewhere with a bit of warmth and sunshine.
“I’ve got a caravan, a good caravan, I’ve had for a while,” he said.
“I’m heading off in July, up north, for six weeks.”
Geordie has hung up the keys one last time.
Photo by
Owen Sinclair
Thirty years might seem like a long time to remain in the one job, but Geordie has loved every single moment of it, right down to every delivery.
Although he has retired from full-time work, Geordie will still help out Denise on her mail run when she needs a hand.
“We’re still going to work, part-time, it might be one or two days a week. Or if Denise has got to go with her mother to a doctor’s appointment, then I’ll do the job for her,” Geordie said.
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