Parker the postie

Over the past 10 years, local postie Parker Maloney has seen Docklands emerge from the ground.

A postie for 20 years, Parker has been delivering mail in Docklands for the past decade and in that time has watched Docklands evolve.

“I’ve really enjoyed seeing it grow,” Parker said.

Each morning he travels by tram from the city delivery centre and hops off on the LaTrobe St bridge to start his deliveries.

Parker delivers to the NewQuay precinct and surrounding areas, and starts each day at the Lacrosse building at 673 LaTrobe St.

From there he heads down to NewQuay and delivers mail to various businesses, all of the apartment towers, throughout Harbour Town and to the Docklands Studios.

According to Parker, one of the most interesting places in Docklands that he’s delivered mail to was a boat.

“One of the boats in the harbour used to have a letterbox on the pier. It’s been removed now and the mail redirected, but that was something a little bit different that you wouldn’t find anywhere else,” Parker said.

Along his route Parker picks up an average of 10 mailbags that have been left at various depot points.

He estimates that he delivers about 2500 standard letters per day, a number that continues to grow as development in Docklands continues.

Parker said his deliveries generally take about three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half hours to complete each day.

And come rain, hail or shine, he and the two other posties who deliver to different parts of Docklands pound the pavement to ensure each and every piece of mail gets delivered.

Parker said he’d personally been lucky that Melbourne had had less than average rainfall over the past 10 years.

He said he enjoyed being able to work near the water and preferred the fresh air in Docklands to being in the midle of the city.

But according to Parker, the best part about working in Docklands was meeting the local residents and workers.

“I really enjoy doing my round because I get to journey through Harbour Town and there’s so much activity and life,” Parker said.

“I meet a lot of people through my job and they’re all lovely.”