Student Pass and Adult Yearly Related Items

Last modified/checked: Friday, 31st July, 2009 - HTML 4.01 Transitional

When the student passes first went on sale, a small printed notice affixed near the service window at Premium stations advised that the processing of the student passes would take longer than previously, due to the fact that they are now Metcard type tickets. Going further still, and perhaps in response to the previously mentioned concerns of students, an advisory handout was produced for them, reinforcing the need to use the cardboard wallet, detailing some facts about the manufacture of the new tickets, and reminding them of the costs of replacement tickets. This handout did not appear until at least a fortnight after the heavy rush on student pass renewals.

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A small cardboard, pocket sized "keepsafe wallet" was initially provided specifically to hold the Adult Yearly and Student passes at the time that these tickets changed over to Metcard from January 2000. Two pockets were provided, one to hold the travel ticket and the other to hold either a photocard (adult yearlies) or a concession card (Student Passes). The logos displayed related to the previous "business units" and their names which had been set up in preparation for privitisation.
This suggests the wallets were produced quite some time before they were ultimately released but we are unsure why.

A replacement wallet was issued within about 12 months and this included the new logos and marketing names of all the private operators' franchises.
The metcard logo on this wallet had recently become the new face of the Metcard brand and was appearing on the current series of blue generic designs.
It appears that from this point, the wallets were now freely available for the safekeeping of all Metcard tickets.

The July 2002 design of the Keepsafe wallet is shown below.

The January 2004 design features the metlink brand.

A second version of the new Metlink keepsafe wallet was available at the Sustainable Living Festival held at Federation Square on the 14th and 15th of February 2004.
They are printed on "Novatech Satin", an environmentally responsible paper made with chlorine free pulp.
From our observations, this wallet has never gone into general use and may only have been produced as a manufacturers sample?

The March/April 2005 version was freely available at the "Revitalising Victoria's Rail" display held on the Collins Street bridge at Spencer Street
on Saturday 23rd April 2005. Now titled as a "Metcard Wallet", the word "keepsafe" being dropped altogether.

The sole example of this wallet was found at the end of 2005.
It was produced specifically to encourage school students to carry their Student Pass and Concession Card together.

It is unknown when this design of metcard wallet first appeared, but is current at October 2008.
It is very similar to the March/April 2005 wallet illustrated above.

This is the first known single pocket wallet. It appears to have gone on issue around June 2008.
The illustrations are (we suspect) of various Melbourne outdoor/sporting activities?

This is the second single pocket wallet seen. It was released in early October 2008.
The illustrations are of various Melbourne landmarks and activities?

This is the third single pocket wallet seen. It was released during late November 2008.
Some of these images are identifiable to us but to the general public receiving these wallets, they are probably becoming increasingly obscure.

This is the fourth single pocket wallet seen. It was released during early March 2009
and would appear to signal the end of the pictorial series.

A surprising find during May 2009 was this "Metcard Minder" issued by Yarra Trams with a print date of 1008 (October 2008).

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