Tag: Australia stamp

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Australia 1961, Even before there was a band on the Little River, Melbourne presented Melba to the world

Nineteenth century Australia is perhaps not where you would look for the next great Prima Dona. Even back then though there was a conservatory in Melbourne with top flight instructors and well off father’s indulging daughters who display talent. Too bad then to reach her potential, Nelly Melba had to leave behind her country, and her husband and even her young son. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp celebrated the birth century of Melba by displaying her bust. I just got you to look at the stamp again, ha ha. A bust is perhaps a little too serious for a performer so it was good that they included an autograph of her stage name to remind that there was a real person behind the marble and the façade.

Todays stamp is issue A124, a five penny stamp issued by Australia on September 20th, 1961. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents.

Nellie Melba’s real name was Helen Mitchell. She was the daughter of a Scottish born builder that operated out of Melbourne. She was a star student  at the Melbourne Conservatory where she received training as an opera singer. Her father was happy to fund her instruction but was opposed to her becoming a professional singer. When his wife died, Melba’s father moved the family to Mackay, Queensland where he was constructing a sugar refinery. Here Melba married and quickly had a son. Melba was not satisfied with how her life was turning out. Alleging abuse by her husband, she abandoned the marriage and her young son and struck out to London where she hoped to become a Prima Dona with the new name of Nellie Melba.  London proved less than receptive so it was on to Paris where she was able to arrange further instruction from Mathilde Marchesi. Melba got a 1000 Franc a year 10 year contract to be the Prima Dona she dreamed of and began a notorious affair with Prince Philippe, Duke of Orleans and that Royal House’s pretender to the French throne. Melba’s still husband back in Mackay threatened to sue for divorce  in Mackay naming Philippe as correspondent. Philippe did not want that and agreed to end it by going on a two year African Safari without her.

Melba was also not happy with her Paris singing contract as she had been offered one at three times the salary in Brussels. Her boss refused to release her but then her luck changed and he died. She tried it again in London to very mixed reviews. She developed an enthusiastic fan base  that saw her repeatedly invited back but the official review said Madam Melba was a fluid vocalist and quite representative of light soprano parts, but lacks the personal charm necessary to be a great figure on the lyric stage. You can’t please everyone, but Melba played around the world even in the USA and a few times back in Australia. She died back in Melbourne after an infection from a botched face lift. By then her husband and son had moved to Texas and quietly divorced her there.

Melba reviews were not all bad and the British named her a Dame in 1919. Australia renamed her old Conservatory for her and even put her on their $100 bill. Assuming it hasn’t been removed lately by only BLM, Covent Gardens Opera House has her statue, one of a very few. One of her biggest fans was French chef Auguste Escoffier, who named Peach Melba and melba toast after her.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to commiserate with the worries of fathers who have been overly indulgent with their daughters. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2020.

 

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Australia 1968, William Dampier, Bridging the Explorer as Pirate to Explorer as Naturalist, while purveying Tex Mex

With William Dampier we have the real life counterpart to  Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. He gets a stamp for charting the east coast of Australia when it was still New Holland. He should be remembered by children in the sense of what a wide word of possibilities are open to them in life. Instead his type are taught in the sense of bad people spreading evil wherever they go. An arguement for another day, anyway whats the deal with Tex Mex? Read on… So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp visually is let down a little by it’s nature of being a small stamp meant for bulk postage. We do get a portrait of him and his then ship HMS Roebuck. Dampier at his most boring. A serving Royal Navy Captain whose mission it was to draw maps. This man was a pirate. This man taught his fellow Britons how to make guacamole. Perhaps thus stamp is most let down by being Australian as Australia’s only brush with Dampier is what is shown on this stamp. Dampier calls out for a new set of big colourfull stamps from his native UK showing his many inspiring sides. And one of Dampier at his end, convicted and penniless, to teach the kiddies and kiddies at heart that crime doesn’t pay.

Todays stamp is issue A145, a 50 cent stamp issued by Australia starting in 1968. It was part of a 26 stamp issue released for bulk postage after the decimalization and Americanization of the Australian currency. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used. As a high denomination bulk stamp, if my copy were mint, the value would skyrocket to $15.

William Dampier was born in 1651 in England. Two merchant shipping expeditions one to Java and another to Newfoundland inspired him to join the Royal Navy. Soon however a sickness ended his service. He tried his hand at plantation management in Jamaica and logging on the mosquito coast but soon he was back to sea as a sometime pirate and sometime privateer. Unusually for a pirate, back in England after his adventures his good memory ample notes allowed him to write books about his exploits that contained both daring do and thorough academic level cataloging of what he had seen as the only man on earth to have circumnavigated the planet three times. Among what he brought back to England were guacamole, avocadoes, mango chutney and the cooking technique of barbeque.

A Dampier map of the then Mosquito Coast, now Central America, from one of his adventure books.

Dampier also brought back with him a slave boy from what is now the Philippines named Joly. Joly had become despondent over the death of his mother and Dampier was chronically broke so even though they had been close, Joly was auctioned off. He was acquired by an inn that put Joly on display as captured Prince Giola of Mindanao. Joly soon died of small pox.

An etching of slave boy Joly after he was repackaged as Prince Giolo of the savages of the east.

The Admiralty had seen Dampier’s books and commissioned him as a ship Captain of HMS Roebuck and told to sail to Australia, then still New Holland, and make charts of and an exploration of the east coast. This did not go well. Dampier discovered a species of giant clams near New Guinea and anchored the ship to do a thorough investigation of them and how best to eat them. At anchor in rough seas, HMS Roebuck’s condition deteriorated. Dampier decided to abandon the job at hand and try to make it back to England. He got as far as Accession Island but the the amount of water the ship was taking on  was too much and Dampier was shipwrecked there until him and the crew were able to catch a ride on a merchant ship in the India trade.

Back in England Dampier was arrested. Not for losing his ship, not for cruelty to indigenous people he had come across, not for all the stomach issues his new spicy foods had caused at home. He was convicted of cruelty. Early in the journey he had a conflict with a young but connected and of a higher class Lieutenant. He solved his problem by dropping him off in Brazil where the young officer was arrested. He still beat Dampier back to England and filed charges against Dampier.

Dampier was back to being a pirate when he attempted a fourth circumnavigation of the Earth. By this time he was old with failing health and the mission was abandoned. He died deeply in debt back in England.

Well my drink is empty. This stamp opened up a story more complex than I could have imagined. What a stamp is for! Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Australia 1970, Last call for seeing oil and gas exploration as economic development

One thing I like to point out when stamp collecting is when a new style of recognition in stamps emerges. As a traditionalist, sorry, I also like to point out when a style fades, perhaps a little wistfully. So with this in mind, we will tell the story of oil and gas exploration in Australia. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

1970 was late enough that the people putting together stamp issues were getting a little squeamish when told to cover the indeed growing energy industry. Here designer Brian Sadgrove puts a purple tint partially blocking the sun over the offshore oil rig and natural gas pipeline. No such tint shows up on more politically correct hydroelectric power or aluminum window frames that were other parts of this economic development issue. Lucky Mr. Sadgrove wasn’t asked to do a coal mine. I suspect the tint, or is it taint, would resemble the fires of hell.

Todays stamp is issue A194, a 10 cent stamp issued by Australia on August 31st, 1970. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations closely modeled on a new train line stamp done earlier in 1970 also by Brian Sadgrove. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents used.

Surveying for potential oil and gas reserves started early in the 20th century but got a lot more serious after World War II. The Australian Motorist Petrol Company, a chain of gas stations, set up an exploration operation in 1946, petitioning the government for surveying rights and subsidies to bring into production oil fields. To assist with this, a partnership was struck with Standard Oil of California. The first oil well started producing at Rough Range in 1953. More extensive oil reserves were found on then unoccupied Barrow Island the next year.

Old AMPOL, showcasing a truck donated by them to an Aboriginal artist and easy chair owner in front of one of their gas pumps

In 1966, the joint venture, now boringly acronymed WAPET found commercial quantities of liquidified natural gas at Dongara, and got a pipeline going to Perth for export by 1971.

Oil production peaked in 2000 and is not so important any more. Natural gas is much more promising with proven reserves stretching out 100 years. The fact that it was all for export has become problematic. It is thought that using dirty coal for electricity makes no sense with relatively clean burning natural gas being available locally. It was decided by the government that in future, natural gas developed must have at least 15 percent set aside for local use.

Being in on the ground flour of big subsidized economic development must have seen great wealth accrue to the Australian Motorist Petrol Company. Production now totals 16.7 billion dollars a year. However, as so often happens there have been a series of mergers that saw AMPOL being a minor subsidiary of American Texaco. Yes oil history nerds, the old Standard Oil of Texas, Rockefeller wherever you look, even down under. Texaco then in 2015 sold the subsidiary generously allowing them the use of their Caltex name. Five years later, Texaco wanted back into Australia, and as a first step took the Caltex name back. The old subsidiary, noticing they still owned the AMPOL name, is now rebranding again to the long ago name. While exhausting, imagine the efficiency wrought by all these machinations. No, I can’t either.

New Ampol. The architecture is comically hideous, but that little thing is a center of a large industry. Somewhere along the line, people got screwed.

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering where all the wealth created by the economic development went. Yes, many people are employed, but where has the money gone. Even the Rockefellers don’t seem to have it. Come again soon for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Australia 1927, the problems of starting a new capital from scratch

It was said by Albert Speer that moving the capital of a country out of the big city is a mistake. He understood that it reduced congestion, but felt that politicians and bureaucrats were just boring people and not being around the artists and achievers  of the big city will leave the area a  wasteland. He was talking in relation to Bonn in Germany but then pointed to Washington, Ottawa, and the subject of todays stamp Canberra, in Australia. Was he right? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Speers argument makes some sense when looking at this stamp. There is a home on the range aspect that is pretty strange on a picture of a then new Parliament Building. The building is done in the stripped neoclassic style that was common in the 1920s. Especially when the architect was American and had come from the Frank Lloyd Wright school of design. The stripping off of ornamentation and the strong sense of the spread out horizontal is right there to see. What is surprising is that in use the building proved quite cramped.

Todays stamp is issue A5, a 1 and a half penny stamp issued by the Commonwealth of Australia on May 9th, 1927. It was a single stamp issue that celebrated the completion of what is now the old Parliament building of Australia. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.10 used. An imperforate between them pair of this stamp is worth $11,000.

After Australia came together in 1901, there was a debate about what should be the capital. Provisionally it was Melbourne but others favored the larger Sydney. Eventually it was agreed to develop a new capital a hundred miles from Sydney, on an area of land ceded from New South Wales. This may sound familiar to the story of the American capital. Indeed the project was lead by Interior Secretary King O’Malley, who was an American expatriate who claimed Canadian birth to ease his entry into Australian politics.  The design he picked to build was from  another American Walter Burley Griffon. In another American frontier touch, he declared the capital area a dry, (no liquor) region. That sends shivers though this philatelist.

The city plan was not followed through on quickly due to the wars and lack of funds. In the 1950s they tried to redouble the efforts but by then Griffin had moved on to later work in India and the city resembled a strung out series of suburbs. Eventually a national Library, a University, and a few museums were strung together. A man made lake and a redwood forest that were part of the original plan are in place. The city has about 400,000 residents.

Sheep in the field near Parliament House. Not part of Griffin’s plan

In 1988, a new Parliament house opened to coincide with further self rule. The House on the stamp still stands though over the years it was haphazardly added on to, losing the gardens. It currently houses the Museum of Australian Democracy.

Well my drink is empty and I am glad I am not stuck in a dry county. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Tasmania 1899, Choosing a Royal Society over bushrangers and convicts

The American west of the 19th century was known for outlaws, adventurers, and troubles with Indians. The Tasmania colony had that too, with the added complication that many settlers were ex convicts. Like the American west, Tasmania eventually formalized as part of the British Empire and then further into Australia. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This issue of stamps displays the natural wonders of Tasmania, in this case Mt. Wellington. When you think of the timing of the stamps still in the 19th century, the depictions are quite good and well printed. Considering how rough some of Tasmania’s early issues are, and that they were not just printed in London as with so many colonies, the progress of society in demonstrated. It also equates to the art of the American west, where the natural beauty was captured by artists and then used to attract settlement.

Todays stamp is issue A11, a one penny stamp issued by the British Crown Colony of Tasmania in 1899. It was an 8 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $3.00 used.

It is believed that the island of Tasmania broke of from the mainland of Australia thousands of years ago. The first inhabitants were Aborigines. The island was first spotted by Dutch Explorer Abel Tasmin in 1642. He named it for his sponsor the Dutch Governor of the East Indies. When the British came around the beginning of the 19th century, they Anglicized his mouthful of a name to van Diemen Land before switching to Tasmania in the 1840s. At the time of the first British settlement, there were about 3000 Aborigines on the island.

The first settlements were really convict settlements with convicts coming from the British Isles and especially Ireland. The convicts usually served short sentences and then given land to farm. Between gangs of escaped convicts, the hardscrabble nature of any new settlement and gangs of angry and hungry Aborigines, one can imagine Tasmania as a difficult place to live. Yet among all the trouble there is civilization. The first church, the first library, the first post office, and even the First Royal Society outside of Britain. It promoted the study of science and nature, and maintained the areas first botanical gardens and listed Queen Victoria as one of it’s patrons. There was also the discovery of gold to stir excitement.

The new settlements faced challenges. The area was hardly crowded by people but the Aborigine were annoyed by the intrusion and began raiding settlements and isolated farms. Their rocks, spears, and anger were of course more annoying than truly dangerous, and most were killed out of hand. It was decided to round up the last few hundred and send them to a small island called Flinders Island. They were expected to raise sheep but did not fare well and mainly lived off charity. In !847, the last few dozen made an appeal to Queen Victoria and were allowed to move back to Tasmania. The last pure blood Aborigine in Tasmania died in the early 20th century.

The bigger problem were the escaped convicts that divided into two groups, The squatocracy and the Bushrangers. Some escaped convicts started sheep farming on not their land and were called the squatocracy. This was annoying but possession being nine tenths of the law they eventually blended in. The others were gangs of outlaw thieves called bushrangers. The law eventually got to most of them especially later with the better communication between settlements thanks to the telegraph. These groups were more of Irish than British heritage and their different ways lead in some ways to the development of an Australian character as distinct from the British.

British settled colonies always had much self rule and over time it was decided to consolidate the Oceania colonies as a more independent Dominion as was done in Canada and less successfully attempted in South Africa. This came to pass and Australia came into being in 1901.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the convict. The ones that served their sentence and than took up the challenge of starting a new life. At the height of the arrival of convicts, Tasmania was taking in 10 percent of it’s population a year as fresh arrivals. Combined with restless natives, the whole enterprise could have ended very badly. It didn’t. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Norfolk Island, people come (in chains), people go

Norfolk is a small island dependent on Australia with a declining and aging population. Australia wonders if it is worth keeping it occupied. It has been that way from the beginning. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

One way for a small island to generate some revenue is to contract out to print stamps for the worldwide stamp collector. The island petitioned repeatedly for the right to print stamps and Australia granted it right before World War II but the stamps themselves had to wait till after the war. It helps if the island is a part of the British Commonwealth, which Norfolk is by extension by way of Australia. The fact that many of the current residents of Norfolk are descended from immigrants from Pitcairn Island guaranteed there would be stamps, as they are big business on Pitcairn. However in 2016 as part of the reorganization of Norfolk’s administration, the separate Norfolk postal system was shut down and anything newer is printed by and for Australia.

Todays stamp is issue A22, a 5 Australian cent stamp issued  by The Australian self governing dependency of Norfolk Island on October 27th, 1968. It was a single stamp issue depicting a mother of pearl carving of the Nativity in celebration of Christmas that year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents whether mint or used.

Though a Polynesian settlement had at one time existed, Norfolk was unoccupied when spotted by Captain Cook in 1774. He named it after Mary Howard, the Duchess of Norfolk. She had asked Captain Cook to name an island for her but by the time he did unknown to him, she had died the year before.  New Zealand style flax was growing there wildly and that attracted the first penal colony from New South Wales to better cultivate it. The flax became less valuable and it was decided that the penal colony be abandoned in 1814.

In 1824, Tasmania and Britain had ideas for a second penal colony specifically to house the worst criminals that had been sentenced to death but as was common then seen that sentence commuted to life in prison. Thus an island 900 miles offshore was ideal. In the 1850s the importation of convicts to Tasmania had ended and it was soon again decided to abandon the facility on Norfolk.

The facilities left by the penal colony proved attractive and 189 residents of Pitcairn Island landed in 1856. The were mainly descendants of the Tahitian wives of the HMS Bounty mutineers. The colony resembled Pitcairn, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/11/29/pitcairn-islands-1967-an-island-with-more-stamps-than-people-this-one-overprinted-in-gold/ , but was less religious. A native dialect even developed that was a combination of 18th century English and Tahitian called norfuk. The island was administered by New South Wales both before and after the creation of Australia. An airstrip was built on the island during World War II to take advantage of it being half way between Australia and New Zealand.

Australia granted much self rule after the war but things did not go well. As Australian citizens, the young adults mostly leave seeking work and study opportunities and tourism is the only real industry. An appeal was made to Australia in 2010 for additional subsidies. The Australians responded by shuttering the local institutions and taking more direct control. The dole became Australia level generous but for the first time, Norfolk residents were expected to pay Australian income tax. This was quite a blow on the island and now there is talk of appealing this to the United Nations as a nation being held against it’s will by another. Meanwhile every year the population drops and there are now barely 1000 residents. I doubt the UN will take up their case as the Norfolk islanders are white. Interestingly the island has so few last names that the phone book included nicknames like Diddles and Rubber duck.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in remembrance of the former Norfolk postal service. Maybe I am just still thirsty. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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New Guinea 1932, when Australia needed New Guinea like a city needs water and the fuzzy wuzzy angels could be relied upon

Colonial fever was still hot at the turn of the twentieth century. Sometimes it takes a deadly military campaign to realize some places are better left alone. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp features a bird of paradise that is native to the tropical island. Still a common vision on todays successor Papua stamps. The bloody price paid by outsiders for the presence on New Guinea means that the draw is no longer as great.

Todays stamp is issue A32, a 3 Penny stamp issued by the territory of New Guinea in 1932 while the area was under a League of Nations mandate to Australia. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations issued over many years. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.25 used.

The northeastern part of the island of New Guinea was first colonized by the Germans. This caused some consternation in the then still British colonies on Australia. They were concerned about the sea trade lanes and just the presence of a potentially hostile  power. In fact the colony of Queensland tried to formally annex German New Guinea. This was quickly resinded by the British foreign office who had no interest in the expense of starting a colony and no wish to comfront Germany. Germany formed a private company to exploit  the territory and tried to set up rubber plantations. This did not go well as without slavery it was nearly impossible to get Guineans to work. The Germans tried to demand labor in order to pay taxes that required cash to pay but results were poor and rebellions frequent. Chinese or Indians were not brought in as would have happened in a British colony. At the beginning of World War I, Australian troops landed and got rid of the Germans with hardly a fight.

Post war, the Australians strongly argued for continued presence in New Guinea as an outside Australia line of defense. Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes said that strategically the northern island encompass Australia like fortresses and are as necessary to Australia as is water to a city. The League of Nations awarded the mandate to Australia in 1921. At this point it was administered separately from Papua to the south.

The fortress aspect came true during World War II.  The Japanese landed and were able to establish a foot hold at Rabaul the capital but the Australians were able to hold on to Port Moresby to the south. From Rabaul, Japan was able to bomb Darwin and if they possessed larger bombers more of Australia would have been subject to bombing. What followed was a bloody three year campaign to dislodge the Japanese and caused the death of 7000 Australian soldiers, 7000 Americans and 30,000 Japanese. The Guineans/Papuans themselves played no part in the fighting although Australians made propaganda of Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels that assisted Australians and allowed them to imply they had native support. No doubt Imperial Japan would never imply they require the services of Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels or Devils for that matter.

A wounded Australian soldier being assisted a New Guinean native, a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel in 1942

After the war came a new UN mandate and new joint administration with Papua. The expense of fortresses on New Guinea was deemed too expensive and Australias forward defense post war would be handled by long range bombers, aircraft carriers and the ANZUS alliance. Papua New Guinea was set on course to independence which was achieved in the 1970s. The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels are no longer considered so angelic as they have soaked up much Australian foreign aid that was mostly squandered.

Well my drink is empty and I may have a few more while I consider the plight of New Guinea. Another place where the colonizers should have left well enough alone. Come again for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting. First published in 2019.

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Australian Antarctic Territory 1984, Home of the Blizzard

Here we have a situation of  going from true adventure with real danger and real knowledge expansion to superficial people and their bucket list. This is not to insult modernity, but perhaps just the way of the world. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp shows the dramatic scenery nearby Mawson station, the oldest continuously year round manned station in the Australian Antarctic territory. The scenery is a natural for the stamps but does much to attract tourism, which risks the last pristine and mostly unoccupied continent.

Todays stamp is issue A15, a 33 cent stamp issued by the Australian Antarctic Territory in 1984. It was part of a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. Stamps of the territory are valid for postage both in the territory and in Australia. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents.

The pioneering expeditions to Antarctica occurred early in the twentieth century. An early one happened in 1912-1913 and included a young geologist from the University of Adelaide named Douglas Mawson. Three men attempted to stay two years in the area around modern day Mawson station. Of the three men on the expedition, only one survived. One man fell into a crevasse and died while carrying much of the expeditions supplies. The second man died after being poisoned eating a dog’s liver. Mawson persevered not just to save his own life but to be able to provide the myriad scientific findings. Upon his return, Mawson was knighted and published many scientific papers and a popular book titled “Home of the Blizzard.” Among his findings was that windspeed averaged 50 mph and could go as high as 200 mph. He hypothesized that Antarctica was the windiest place on earth.

After WWI service and other Geology work in Australia, Mawson organized the much larger BANZARE expeditions of 1929-31. The expedition involved sea and air and was funded by three countries, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand with additional private funding. This expedition claimed the territory explored for Great Britain and occupied the rest of Mawson’s life editing 13 volumes of data. When he died in 1958, the work was not done and his eldest daughter Patricia took over the work only completing it in 1975. In 1933, Britain and Australia agreed to divide the territory claimed between themselves. See this American stamp I did a while back that goes into Antarctic treaties that governs various scientific stations now. https://the-philatelist.com/2017/10/25/celebrate-the-treaty-but-reserve-your-right-to-violate-it/.

Sir Douglas Mawson in 1914

Australia organized a permanent year round station named after Mawson in 1954. The Australian station consists of about 500 during summer and 80 during winter. There are more than 50 permanent buildings. There also now cruise ships that allow tourists to set foot on Antarctica, so far at least staying on shipboard. To show how reckless and unserious even the scientists have become lets recall a recent expedition organized by an Australian university. The university chartered a Russian icebreaker and took not only scientists but spouses and even some tourists who paid there way on. The ship got stuck in the ice and the call went to the Australian armed forces for rescue. These perfumed princes then demanded extra dangerous helicopter flights so they could leave the ship with all their luggage. Remember the wind? I hope none of these losers were knighted on their return, but today who knows. The Russian crew elected to stay with the ship till spring when it could be saved.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast Sir Douglas Mawson. Come again  for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting, First published in 2019.

 

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Australia 1983, Can ANZCER become CANZUK, and should it?

This stamp commemorates an agreement to free up trade and travel restrictions between Australia and New Zealand. Understanding that I have just lost half of this week’s readers, 39 years later it might be fun to examine if ANZCER worked as intended and perhaps even if it should be built upon. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to this week’s offering from The Philatelist.

The picture below shows the charmingly black and white photo of the charmingly grey second string politicians that signed the agreement in 1983. By the time of the signing the terms of the agreement were already in effect and even this stamp was already issued. So for the stamp we get an 80s stylized emblem of a kiwi bird and I think a wombat no doubt hiding out together from the indigenous predators. You might think this a little dated, but the stamp was reissued in 2013 and what really proved dated was the 27 cent denomination.

New Zealander and British High Commissioner Laurie Francis(left) and then Australian Deputy Prime Minister Lionel Bowen signing the ANZCER agreement on March 28th, 1983

Todays stamp is issue A325, a 27 cent stamp issued by Australia on February 2nd, 1983. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents (American) unused. The value of the 2013 reissue catapults to 70 cents unused.

Australia and New Zealand started out as separate, self-governing British colonies. The British Queen is still Head of State of both countries. In 1965, Australia and New Zealand signed their own NAFTA agreement cutting tariffs between the two countries 80%. There were fears in Australia about being flooded with cheap New Zealand dairy products, but the decision was made to take integration further by cutting tariffs to zero and allowing the free movement and right to work of people between the two countries. These provisions of the ANZCER agreement took full effect in 1990. Below are two graphs of each country’s exports to the other since the agreement. The graphs show the trend as up, up, and away but you should remember how much inflation there has been in the last 39 years. This 1983 stamp denomination should remind.

Australian exports to New Zealand since the agreement pre COVID
New Zealand exports to Australia since the agreement pre COVID

Being seen as a success, modern politicians of both left and right in both counties have spoken in generic terms of expanding the integration. However in 2015 a new group got started with the acronym CANZUK, that proposes a similar to ANZCER relationship that includes the United Kingdom and Canada. They point out that all the countries share the Queen as Head of State, similar Parliamentary and legal systems, similar standards of living and growth rates. There is sort of lead balloon aspect of no home rule empire reconstituted to CANZUK, but the right-wing party in Canada and only them have endorsed it. As an outsider American, I can see the bigger problem. The group lacks a popular emblem that adds an English bulldog and a Newfoundlander dog to the kiwi bird and the wombat hiding out together from the indigenous predators. Guys you have to learn to sell your ideas!

Well my drink is empty. Come again next Monday for a new story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Australia 1996, Who sank the boat, don’t worry I won’t spoil it

Australia has maintained a vibrant children’s book industry. How it came about, and how it is maintained is an interesting story. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp issue features books that have won the Australian Children’s Book of the year award. This stamp features Who Sunk the Boat, a 1983 winner that was written and illustrated by New Zealander Pamela Allen. It tells a story designed for adults to read to small children in a sing songy way of 4 animals debating who ruined their day sailing by sinking the boat. I won’t spoil the ending.

Todays stamp is issue A514, a 45 cent stamp issued by Australia on July 4th, 1996. It was a four stamp issue all in the same denomination. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1 USA used.

In 1945 two American ladies stationed in Australia with the USA Information Library suggested a children books week in Australia modeled on what was happening in the USA. It was to be a partnership of teachers, librarians, booksellers and publishers. Once the organization got going it decided to give out a children’s book of the year award though in the first years it was only awarded intermittently. In 1966, Australian government grants replaced the foreign aid and the organization grew exponentially. Perhaps too much as in 1988 the government pulled funding. For 5 years after the Myers Department Store chain paid the bill but afterwards funding as come via a non profit foundation.

Pamela Allen was born in New Zealand in 1934 was college educated and served as a teacher. In 1977 Allen and her sculptor husband moved to Sydney and the first of her 30 children’s books came out in 1980. Eight of them were pieced together into a play that was performed in 2004 at the Sydney Opera House. In 2008 Allen semi retired back to New Zealand. In Australia, Penguin Books commissioned Allen’s Melbourne based glass sculptor daughter Ruth to produce a piece of art to celebrate 5 million copies of her mother’s books. Back in New Zealand, she was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. Allen is still with us.

Pamela Allen
Ruth Allen’s lost wax tribute to her mother. The boat shape is a callback of her most famous book and the smooth sailing of her book sales

In case you are wondering about the 2020 award, the winner was I Need a Parrot written and illustrated by Chris McKimmie.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.