Lost-mail sales offer wide choice

SIX wedding dresses, a didgeridoo, a toupee and a massage table are among thousands of items lost and unclaimed in Australia's mail system in the past year and being sold for charity.

Australia Post said the wedding dresses would be sold in Melbourne tomorrow, where organizers expect to raise about A$60,000 (US$55,164).

"I think most have been worn once and might have been sent to the cleaners and just never returned. It's a shame," Australia Post spokeswoman Melanie Ward said.

About a million letters and parcels become lost in the post each year in Australia's most populous state of New South Wales because they don't have the correct name and address, or return-to-sender details.

Australia Post auctions off the lost items if they are not claimed, with the proceeds going to a range of charities.

"It's just so important, especially for wedding dresses, for people to put the correct address or at least include the right return address so we can get it back to them," Ward said. "Obviously a wedding dress is something you want to hang on to."

The auctions are held across Australia twice a year.