When P and O's remaining interest in the Orient Line was taken up a new company was formed, which in July 1960, became known as P and O - Orient Lines, and in Australia as
P and O - Orient Lines of Australia eventually becaming P and O of Australia.

At this time the Melbourne passage staff were still situated on the ground floor at 311 Collins Street. Up to that time passage tickets had been typed out, with an original copy (the Ticket), and two duplicates, one for accounts and one for filing. The ticket was then placed in a card cover and fastened with two 'eylets'. Prior to issuing the ticket a passenger was given a Deposit Ticket, which was similar to a passage ticket except that it was blue, was put in a blue cover, and had the words 'Deposit Ticket' on the cover and inside ticket. This was exchanged for the actual Passage Ticket upon payment of the balance of fare, usually one month prior to the sailing date. Both the deposit and passage tickets had to be signed by a senior Passage Clerk, in my days either Bob Gardiner, who was in charge of the Berthing Section (putting passengers in berths/cabins) Fred Ferguson, in emergency either Ernie Olssen (Deputy Passenger Manager) or Peter Kimber (Passenger Manager).

With the new company came the requirement to produce new stationery right across the board, to reflect the new brand identity. Some existing materials were re-produced using elements of previously used items when operating as P and O and Orient Line respectively. One such 'amalgamation' is shown below where a former Orient Line poster "Run away to Sea", was adapted by the addition of the new company name.

With the formation of the new company, however, came a totally new type of passage ticket. This was composed of, I think, 5 copies of which the first and second were the forward and return portions of the travel document. The third was the Deposit Ticket, and the fourth and fifth Accounts and Filing respectively. The pages were also carbon backed, this being before 'no carbon required' (NCR) tickets appeared. As a result they could get rather dirty. The other main difference was that they were written out by hand. There were also two new staff employed to handle the Trans-Pacific bookings, the senior was David Harris, a former ships Radio Operator and Dick Rayson, ex RAF and former Spitfire Pilot. David Harris usually signed the pacific arae tickets.The itineraries of this service are shown on the page under P and O Other Companies see link below:

This reproduction is taken from a postcard re-print of the poster produced by P and O Corporate Affairs in their collection of 16 postcards of P and O Memorabilia.

(Michael Byard Collection)