March 13th, 2024Keep you posted: Mick makes our postal heritage sing
Former Bushwhacker Mick Slocum has been in Daylesford in recent days to do something he absolutely loves besides making music – working to make the town’s heritage post box sing.
Restoring the state’s 120 or so red heritage pillar post boxes has become a self imposed labour of love for Mick, well known to many through his former role as a muso with Aussie band the Bushwhackers.
It all started with his own local heritage post box in suburban Ascot Vale in April last year, when Mick became aware that it had been besmirched with graffiti.
First he cleaned up the graffiti, but then could not resist going a little further to restore the vintage postal piece properly back to its former glory.
“I came home, bought some cleaning material, cleaned off the graffiti, and stood back and looked at it and thought, I’ll just keep going,” he says.
“So I went down to the hardware store, bought a can of red, a can of gold, and a can of black and went back and rubbed it all down and sanded it and resprayed it.”
From there the bug bit and, gaining the full-hearted support of Australia Post, Mick has since restored more than 20 heritage post boxes on streets in various Melbourne suburbs and in regional centres including Kyneton and Castlemaine, before most recently turning his attention to Daylesford’s own historic number on the corner of Camp and Raglan Streets in Willis Square.
“This is the 26th one I’ve restored so far and there are about 120 statewide, all in varying states of disrepair and all seriously deteriorating,” Mick said as he got to work on the Daylesford box, painstakingly bringing out its intricate heritage details.
Mick is more than keen to lovingly restore each and every one of the remaining boxes in Victoria, with Australia Post not only remunerating him for his troubles, but also paying him a bit for his contribution to the nation’s postal heritage as well.
“But I never set out to get paid,” said Mick who is also a professional pharmacist and remains a working musician as well.
But, being a showman at heart, he dresses especially for his heritage restoration activities, sporting a tartan vest suit that emphasises the sense of occasion and reinforces the heritage significance of what he is doing.
“This one’s got about 10 coats of paint on it and the original features are covered,” he said in Daylesford.
“There isn’t a single person alive now who was here when this was installed. The oldest of them dates back well over 140 years and every third one is still useable.”
Daylesford’s is one of these. In fact someone popped over and posted a letter in it while Mick chatted about the restoration process that typically takes him a couple of days depending on the state of the box.
“I’ve sort of invented myself a job for life,” he said.
“It’s a bit like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge because once you’ve finished it will be time to start all over again.
“It’s extremely meditative and I particularly enjoy it when I put the red paint on it and you can see it coming to life.”
Next up, following the restoration of Daylesford’s, Mick is turning his attention to Ballarat where, he says there are eight of the vintage post boxes and he plans to start with the one near the regional city’s train station, and then move on to the one in the CBD.
“They are priceless examples of our Victorian heritage,” he says.
When not bringing vintage postal boxes back to their yesteryear glory, Mick is also a professional pharmacist and an active muso who, together with his current band The Exciting McGillicuddies, has a regular Sunday evening gig at an Irish pub in inner city Kensington.
“We’re lifting the veil on Australia’s heritage. There aren’t many things on the streets these days that are 130 years old. They’re so beautiful,” he said. Words: Eve Lamb
