The History Channel has a two part special  The Stamp of Australia, four years in the making, to salute 200 years of the Australian postal service.

Hosted by Scott McGregor (Australian Icon Towns) it will look at  the story of the men, the women, and the indomitable spirit that conquered our tyranny of distance – and gave us communication with the world.

The documentary will hark back to the day the first letters arrived in the colony of New South Wales by ship from England in 1790.

It spans everything from the opening of the first post office, the coach runs of Cobb & Co, letters from the battlefields of two World Wars, to airmail and beyond.

As well as filming modern-day mail operations, such as flying with the pilots who service the isolated Outback, the documentary features historical re-enactments. There are also interviews with Dr Clare Wright, an award-winning historian, author and public commentator, plus author Les Carlyon, the late  Nancy Bird-Walton, recalling her encounters with airmail legend Charles Kingsford Smith and even Ian Thorpe on the “instant” gold medal stamps produced for the Sydney Olympics.

The Stamp of Australia premieres on The History Channel on Monday, March 23 and 30 at 7:30pm AEDT.