School in the Mailbox

1946, 18 Minutes

Triumphing over space and distance, Australian education brings learning to the children of the outback, through the mailbox.

Nominated for an Academy Award, this black and white film from the 1940s looks at how Australians overcame vast geographical distances to educate the children of the outback by correspondence.

Living far from any school, the students are taught from a city school where there are no pupils, only teachers. In the days before satellites, the internet, faxes or even photocopying machines, School in the Mailbox shows the extraordinary organisation and planning that was involved in delivering lessons to children by plane, train, buggy, even camel, and then returning them to the school for correction.

An Australian National Film Board Production. © 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.