I got to Martin Place a bit after midday on the Saturday, and the queue was already curling back past the columns of the GPO. Most of the people in it were holding a phone up to photograph the Hedwig display and the little owl-post delivery motorbike parked out front before they’d even got inside. That was the Harry Potter Owl Post Experience, HBO Max and Australia Post’s two-day takeover of Sydney’s old General Post Office, timed for Back to Hogwarts on 1 September.
I’d read a Harry Potter book roughly once a year as a kid waiting for my own letter that obviously never came, so this was always going to be a soft target for me. Here’s what it was actually like, not the press-release version.
Getting in and writing the letter
Once inside, staff handed over a sheet of Hogwarts-branded writing paper and an envelope and pointed me toward one of the tables set up along the hall. I’d planned to write something to a friend overseas, but ended up doing what a few other people around me seemed to be doing instead: writing to myself, a few years from now, which felt a bit like a time capsule and a bit silly, in a good way.
Once it was sealed inside the envelope, I took it to a counter near the back where a staff member added a wax seal — a proper thunk with the stamp, not just a sticker — and I posted it into the Owl Post collection box. I’d heard beforehand that posting was free anywhere in Australia for the weekend. That’s not quite right: Australia Post’s own instructions for the letter template say to attach a normal postage stamp before sending it, same as any other letter. Whatever concession applied might have only covered people who queued up in person like I did, but there’s no official word anywhere that postage itself was free, so I wouldn’t repeat that one to anyone else.
The letter swarm
The actual centrepiece, and the reason for the queue, was the letter swarm installation further inside: a cluster of Hogwarts envelopes suspended mid-air, recreating the scene where Harry tries to grab his own acceptance letter out of the fireplace flood. It’s a good photo spot, obviously staged for Instagram, and I still stood in a second, shorter queue to get my turn in front of it. Staff were taking photos for people rather than just letting everyone fumble with their own phone, which was a nice touch and moved things along faster than I expected.
Josh Bannister, Australia Post’s Executive General Manager for Retail, Brand & Marketing, said the point of the whole thing was to bring a touch of magic to one of the company’s most recognisable buildings. Standing under a hundred paper letters in a 19th-century post office, that part actually landed.
What I’d do differently
Go earlier than midday. By the time I left, closer to 2pm, the queue outside had roughly doubled from when I arrived, and the letter swarm photo spot was clearly the bottleneck, not the writing tables. The activation ran 11am to 5pm on both the Saturday and Sunday, so if there’s a repeat next year, opening time is the move.
If you missed it
Australia Post had a downloadable version of the letter template on its campaign page for anyone who couldn’t get into the city, so people elsewhere could still do the writing-and-sealing part at home. That page has since come down now the weekend’s over, so if you’re reading this later, your best bet is checking Australia Post’s stamps page or their socials in case it resurfaces closer to next year’s Back to Hogwarts.
Either way, this was really the entrée. The original Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone film is back in Australian cinemas for a 25th-anniversary run with 12 extra minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, and the new HBO Original series adaptation lands on HBO Max this Christmas.
More to do these school holidays
If you’re in Sydney and looking for what’s next, the NSW spring school holidays run 28 September to 9 October this year. For other low-cost outings, Chowder Bay Playground in Mosman is worth the trip for the harbour view alone, and Peak Pursuits in Castle Hill is a good wet-weather backup. Or browse our full directory of school holiday activities by suburb and category.
Quick facts
- What: Harry Potter Owl Post Experience, presented by HBO Max and Australia Post
- Where: Australia Post, Sydney GPO, 1 Martin Place, Sydney NSW
- When: Saturday 29 and Sunday 30 August 2026, 11am–5pm
- Cost: Free entry
- Postage: Standard stamp required for letters, same as usual — it was not a free-postage weekend
- At-home option: A downloadable letter template was offered on Australia Post’s campaign page during the activation; that page has since been taken down
- What’s next: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone 25th-anniversary cinema re-release now showing; HBO Original series premieres Christmas 2026 on HBO Max
Sources: Mediaweek, TV Tonight, Australia Post’s Owl Post Experience campaign page (live during the activation, since taken down)