Fairfield postie delivers for half a century

Tony Duggan started working at Australia Post when he was 17 and he still works the morning shift at 70.

Tony Duggan celebrates 50 years of being a postie. Picture: Robert Pozo

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Tony Duggan started working at Australia Post — formerly Postmaster General — when he was 17, and today he still works the morning shift at 70.

When the longtime Smithfield resident started working for the company more than 50 years ago, he was as a postie.

“My mother and father are both Irish and they seemed to think the Post Office is the best job in the world,” Mr Duggan said.

“But I decided I could do better … It was just a case of going up the ladder and I went up the ladder one step at a time.”

For a decade from 1991, he ran the Wetherill Park delivery centre, overseeing the efforts of 60 employees.

Mr Duggan still works part-time and the Post Office in Fairfield, pulling four-hour shifts from 4.30am.

“I’ve enjoyed it, the whole 50 years,” he said.

“When I turned 70, they asked if I was going to retire. And I said no because I love getting up to go to work.”