Maldon’s historic postbox has had a lick of lovely fresh paint and it seems like the perfect symbol of renewal to say: Happy New Year! But the inspiring story of how the pillar box came to be painted by Mick Slocum OAM also speaks of regeneration and rejuvenation at any time and any age.
It sounds like a vocational calling, and certainly it came about by accident, but painting pillar-boxes is Mick’s third or fourth career. “I was a pharmacist by profession and I’d always been in the music business, I always played,” says Mick, who was a member of the Bushwackers Band in the 1970s and more recently toured the world to promote and highlight Australian music and cuisine.
While scrubbing away spray-painted tags, during a self-described ‘anti-graffiti fad’ near his Melbourne home last year, he decided to take the cleaning a step further. “I walked past my local pillar box for the fifty-thousandth time when a light bulb went off over my head and I thought I could make it look even better,” he describes. After painting it, and then a dozen others, he showed photos to managers at Australia Post who were surprised and impressed. They engaged him to paint more post-boxes, providing a list of 180 and negotiating a rate of pay per box.
It sounds as though there is a decent amount of labour involved: each pillar box requires a thorough cleaning and sanding to remove the old paint before Mick can commence the make-over. “The layers of paint hide the original details,” he explains. “The boxes were designed and built in Melbourne in the 1880s. They go into the ground about three feet and it’s not worth the bother to remove them.”
Mick is working his way around country towns; he has painted 16 boxes in Ballarat and others in Castlemaine and Chewton. He now has an apprentice as he branches out to paint the cast-iron electricity substations that can be found on street corners in inner Melbourne.
Aged in his 70s, Mick acknowledges that it is not always easy to take on new projects but that the first step is to start. “As you age, motivation gets harder and harder because your energy levels drop,” he says. “But I force myself to ride my bike and go to the gym because it’s difficult,” he says. “And I force myself to do this, because it’s difficult.”
When pressed about why it’s worth doing things that are difficult, Mick says: “It keeps you young, it keeps your mind active, it challenges you, it keeps you away from the telly.” Mick laughs that people often notice the newly-painted, 140-year-old boxes for the very first time, and points to the fact that he can see and enjoy the results of his efforts.
Such great lessons as we head into a New Year and consider ways to live satisfying lives in 2025.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 10 January 2025.
