"I actually met my husband Peter when I was doing relief work on the GPO switchboard and he was on the police communications switchboard.

"A person rang up and wanted to report an accident I think it was. I connected the 2222 call to the BO3O police switchboard and we got chatting and then he asked me out. We went out the next night. I didn't hear from him for a couple of weeks then reconnected with him again."

Trevor Somerville,80,was a parcel sorter in 1954 and 1955 over the Christmas rush,starting his first job aged 15. He remembers the clocktower had been removed in 1942 because of concerns the Japanese could target it. Having never eaten in a restaurant or a pub,the canteen was the highlight.

"It was totally unskilled labour,"he said."We were given no training and taken to a huge room and the only thing in there were big wooden desks with big holes at one end.

"A bloke with a canvas bag would pile a million parcels on to your desk and I ran the marking stamp over them and threw them down the hole and they disappeared on a conveyor belt. We worked from 5am until 6pm the 10 days before Christmas and for that I got £24 - that was a fortune for me."

There's one parcel Mr Somerville won't forget."It was a metre long bar of pure gold that came in a canvas bag. It was unmarked and unregistered and I could hardly lift it. It was going through the ordinary postal service. That was the most amazing thing that I had to deliver."

Les Edwards sent telegrams by morse code in the mid-50s. In 2005 he set a Guinness World Record for the fastest message sent and received. He sent the prescribed 160-character message to Ray Carter who then typed it onto a piece of paper using a typewriter in 1 minute and 8 seconds.

"On my first day the instructor opened the doors and the noise was so much you could feel it with people tapping morse code,teleprinters going,"he said."There were about 400 working there.

"No one had a telephone in those days. You would go away somewhere and you would send a telegram back'arrived OK'. I was in the GPO for 20 years in that building. They were the best years of my life."

A new book,Fullerton Stories will be released in 2020 chronicling the social history and transformation of the building,and its pivotal role in the development of Sydney and Martin Place. Hotel guests and the public can also book heritage tours.

Cavaliere Giovanni Viterale,general manager of The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts,said:“The GPO building has a rich history which deserves to be celebrated and shared with both Sydneysiders and new hotel guests. We are committed to the conservation of the building for future generations.”