Postage stamps and postal history of Australia

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

selvedge
1d King George V, used at Sydney in 1916

This is an overview of the

postage stamps and postal history
of Australia.

Postal history

The six self-governing Australian colonies that formed the

Section 51(v) of the Australian Constitution
empowered the Commonwealth to make laws in respect of “postal, telegraphic, telephonic, and other like services”.

The Commonwealth created the

decimal currency
invalidated all stamps bearing the earlier currency.

Circumstances precluded the immediate issue of a uniform Commonwealth postage stamp. But there was no hindrance in respect to a Postage Due series. The first of these, the design of which was based on the current New South Wales postage due stamps, was issued in July 1902.

Postal rates became uniform between the new states on 1 May 1911 because of the extension of the United Kingdom domestic postal rate of 1d per half ounce (Imperial Penny Post) to Australia as a member of the British Empire. One penny became the uniform domestic postage rate. One penny postcards and lettercards also appeared in 1911. In the same year, the Postmaster-General's Department held a stamp design competition for a uniform series of Commonwealth postage stamps. This competition attracted over one thousand entries.

The "Roo" stamp

The £2 stamp in the Kangaroo and Map series.
Woolloongabba, Queensland

The first definitive stamp inscribed "Australia" was a red 1d "Kangaroo and Map" stamp, the design of which was adopted in part from the entry that won the Stamp Design Competition. Although the delay between federation and the first stamps had several causes, one of the major reasons was political wrangling regarding the design. There was a considerable amount of opposition to any inclusion of British royal symbols or profiles.[1]

A design completion was announced in 1911, and several designs, including royal profiles were chosen. The government decided on having only one design, and Charlie Frazer, then postmaster-general, inspired the basic outline of the new design.[2] Blamire Young, a local watercolour artist, was commissioned to produce the final design.

The first definitive issue had fifteen stamps ranging in value from ½d to £2.

George V
. On 8 December 1913 the first of these, an engraved 1d carmine-red, appeared. Soon after, typographed values of the design ranging from ½d (halfpenny) to 1/4d (one shilling and four pence) appeared. The Postmaster-General's Department then went on to keep both basic designs on issue – 38 years for the Kangaroo and Map design, and 23 years for the George V (upon his death).

In about 1948, H. Dormer Legge published a study of these stamps, The Kangaroo Issues of the stamps of the Commonwealth of Australia.[3]

Later definitive stamps

With the accession of

Scarlet Robin definitive (issued 21 April 1965) become the new 25c decimal currency value; likewise the £2 (two pounds) Phillip Parker King
definitive (issued 26 August 1964) became the new $4 decimal currency value.

The last base domestic letter rate definitive stamp featuring the monarch appeared on 1 October 1971. Since then, the designs of all Australian definitive values have focused on fauna, flora, reptiles, butterflies, marine life, gemstones, paintings, handicrafts, visual arts, community and the like. From 1980, a stamp has been issued annually to commemorate the monarch's birthday.

First commemorative stamp

Australia's first commemorative stamp was issued on 9 May 1927 to mark the opening of the first

Melbourne Olympic Games commemorative issue. These were printed by a foreign company. The first Australian-printed multicoloured stamp, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Australian Inland Mission
, was issued on 5 September 1962.

1957 Christmas stamp

There have been many special issues. The first

Olympic gold medal
are issued on the next postal business day after the achievement.

Airmails

Australia's first airmail-designated stamp appeared on 20 May 1929. A special 3d (three pence) airmail stamp was available for mail sent on the Perth-Adelaide air service. The cost of this service was 3d per ½ oz plus normal postage. On 19 March 1931 and 4 November 1931, a further two airmail-designated stamps, both 6d (sixpence), appeared. After these, general definitives were used for mail sent by air.

Stamp booklets

Coin-operated

vending machines were introduced in 1960 and have continued in various forms to the present day. These included Frama vending machines stamps, first issued in 1984 and discontinued in 2003, as well as various booklets. Booklet stamps were discontinued in 1973 but were reintroduced some years later. Stamp booklets were available from Advance Bank ATMs
from 1984 until the bank's merger with St George Bank in 1996. These were Australia's first (and, to date, only) triangular stamp issue.

Self-adhesive stamps

Self-adhesive stamps were first issued in 1990. The first self-adhesive commemoratives appeared in 1993. Self-adhesive stamps have proved popular with users and very soon came to be in more common use than gummed stamps. Australia issues gummed versions of all self-adhesive stamps.

Prior to 1997, the only living persons to appear on stamps were the reigning monarch and other members of the royal family. Since 1997, Australia Post[4] has issued stamps commemorating living Australians. In particular, an annual Australian Legends issue has commemorated living Australians who have made some significant contribution during their lives.

Stamps with personalized tabs were introduced in 1999. Australia Post has also used tabs to commemorate themes and individuals not considered significant enough for a stamp issue of their own.

Postal rates

Since the introduction of the

Goods and Services Tax
, separate stamps were introduced for domestic and international postage in 2001. Stamps inscribed "International Post" are not valid for domestic postage. Domestic stamps can be used for overseas postage but contribute less than face value towards the postage (the user must deduct the tax component).

Official Service stamps

From the 1913 to 1930, Commonwealth and State Government agencies used stamps (

Official Service
”). In 1931 the puncturing system was abandoned and stamps for government mail were overprinted OS. In February 1933, it was decided that government mail would no longer require postage stamps. The exception to OS stamps being restricted for the use of government agencies was the 4 November 1931 6d airmail stamp. The OS overprinted stamp was sold over post office counters to prevent speculation and was valid for all types of mail.

Joint issues

Australia has had joint stamp issues with New Zealand (1958, 1963 and 1988), the United Kingdom (1963, 1988 and 2005), some of its

external territories
(1965), the United States of America (1988), the U.S.S.R. (1990), People's Republic of China (1995), Germany (1996), Indonesia (1996), Singapore (1998), Greece (2000), Hong Kong (2001), Sweden (2001), France (2002) and Thailand (2002).

Postal stationery

Newspaper wrappers were first issued in 1913, using the "Kangaroo on Map" "Stamp" design by Blamire Young.[5] Aerogrammes
were first issued in 1944.

External territories

Each Australian external territory has a specific postal and philatelic history.

Formerly administered by New South Wales, Norfolk Island used that colony's stamps after 1877. Norfolk Island used stamps of Australia between 1913 and 1947, attained postal independence and issued its own stamps on 10 June 1947.[6] Norfolk Island lost postal independence in 2016.[7]

The Territory of Papua, officially a British colony but administered by Australia, issued its own stamps from 1901. before this, it had used Queensland stamps. Stamps of Australia were issued there between 1945 and 1953 in the new Territory of Papua and New Guinea.[8][9]

Transferred from Singapore to Australia by the United Kingdom in the 1950s, Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands were progressively and separately integrated[10] into the Australian postal system and losing their postal and philatelic independence in the 1990s. While Christmas Island had postal independence and issued its own stamps since 1958, the Cocos Islands used stamps of Australia from 1952 until its postal independence in 1979. The first Cocos stamps were issued in 1963.

Both territories lost their postal independence to Australia Post in 1993 for Christmas Island and 1994 for the Cocos Islands. Consequently, their stamps became valid within Australia and stamps of Australia became valid in the islands.[11][12]

The Australian Antarctic Territory had always been using stamps of Australia but disposed of its stamps since 27 March 1957. They are valid for postage within Australia.[13]

Military occupations and mandates

Australian stamp overprinted "N. W. Pacific Islands." for the former German colonies, 1918
See also: Postage stamps and postal history of New Guinea, Postage stamps and postal history of Nauru, and Postage stamps and postal history of Papua New Guinea

With military operations during World War I, Australia occupied two former German colonies, German New Guinea and Nauru. German colonial stamps were overprinted, followed by Australian stamps overprinted "North West Pacific Islands" in 1915. In the 1920s, stamps were issued for these two territories as League of Nations mandates.

Nauru and New Guinea were under Japanese occupation in 1942. At the end of World War II, in 1945, stamps of Australia were used in mandate of New Guinea and in Papua until 1 March 1953. The new combined Territory of Papua and New Guinea received its own stamps bearing the name "Territory of Papua and New Guinea" until its independence in 1975.[14][15]

British Commonwealth Occupation Force

Australian stamp overprinted for use by British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, 1946

Between October 1946 and February 1949, in occupied Japan, the Australian stamps used as such by the military post offices were overprinted "B.C.O.F. / JAPAN / 1946" to avoid speculation on the currency value.[16]

See also

References and sources

Notes
  1. ^ a b The Australian Stamp Catalogue, 1976 edition
  2. ^ McMullin, Ross. Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Retrieved 26 December 2017 – via Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  3. ^ "The kangaroo issues of the stamps of the Commonwealth of Australia", WorldCat. Accessed 2024-02-15.
  4. ^ See auspost.com.au. Archived 2008-05-04 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ a b c Darke, B C, The Postal Stationery of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1976
  6. ISBN 978-0-85259-666-1
    , page 120.
  7. ^ See Postage stamps and postal history of Norfolk Island for more details.
  8. ISBN 978-0-85259-666-1
    .
  9. ^ See Postage stamps and postal history of Papua New Guinea for more details.
  10. ^ Due to their divergent local histories. Christmas Island was then locally administered by a phosphate company and Cocos Islands were the property of a civil family and watched by British and Australian forces because of the islands' role in intercontinental telecommunications.
  11. ISBN 978-0-85259-666-1
    .
  12. ^ See Postage stamps and postal history of Christmas Island and Postage stamps and postal history of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands for more details.
  13. ^ See Postage stamps and postal history of the Australian Antarctic Territory for more details.
  14. ISBN 978-0-85259-666-1
    .
  15. ^ See Postage stamps and postal history of Nauru and Postage stamps and postal history of Papua New Guinea for more details.
  16. ISBN 978-0-85259-666-1
    , page 102.
Sources
  • Australia Post Philatelic Group: Australian Stamp Bulletin. Melbourne: Australian Postal Corporation, various bulletins.
  • Higgs, John: The Australasian Stamp Catalogue. Sydney: Seven Seas Stamps, 1996.
  • Kellow, Geoffrey, and others: Australian Commonwealth Specialist’ Catalogue. Sydney: Brunsden-White, 1988–2002.
  • Pitt, Alan: Stamps of Australia. Sydney: Renniks Publications, 2005.

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Definitive stamps of Australia.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Stamps of Australia.

External links
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