Issued by Australia

Issued on Sep 3, 1998

Design : The stamps feature the Common Red–eye (Chaetocneme beata), found in coastal eastern Australia from Cairns in Queensland to Wollongong in NSW; the brilliant Ulysses Butterfly (Papilio ulysses joesa), seen in north-eastern Queensland, from Cape York to the vicinity of the Atherton Tablelands; the Meadow Argus (Junonia villida calybe) which occurs throughout Australia; a shining purple butterfly, the Dull Oakblue (Arhopala centaurus centaurus), seen near mangroves or around rainforest trees in coastal Northern Territory and Queensland; and the Red Lacewing (Cethosia cydippe chrysippe), found in north-eastern Queensland, from Cape York to Townsville.

Designer : Chris Shurey, Melbourne

Stamp photographs by ANT Photo Library :
Red Lacewing (G Wood); Ulysses Butterfly (Otto Rogge); Dull Oak Blue, Meadow Argus and Common Red-eye (Frithfoto).

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

About : 

• More than three quarters of Australian butterfly species occur in the tropical north and north-east of the continent, where abundant rainforest provides host plants and habitats for many species. Some 400 species of butterflies have been recorded in Australia.
  
• Butterflies do not live long, sometimes only a few days or weeks. They have many natural enemies and form an important part of many food chains. The life cycle of a butterfly incorporates four separate stages: egg, caterpillar (larva), pupa (chrysalis) and adult. This type of life cycle involves a total body transformation, a process known as complete metamorphosis. A tiny caterpillar hatches from the egg. As it grows, it moults several times before pupating. During pupation, the caterpillar’s body is reorganised and transformed into a butterfly. After the butterfly emerges, mating takes place and the life cycle is completed when fertilised eggs are laid. The entire period from egg to adult varies considerably and can range from just a few weeks up to two years.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Feb 27, 1997

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

About : 

• Cars have been produced in Australia since the turn of the century, and have become an integral part of everyone’s daily life. In 1950 there was one car for every 6.46 Australians, in 1960 it was one for every 3.68, and now the figure is one for every 1.7 people. The stamps show four cars which have been significant for Australians.
• The Ford Coupe Utility was the first ‘ute‘, designed in Geelong by the Ford Design Group under Lewis Bandt. It was both a passenger vehicle and a light truck, and went on sale in 1934 for about £280 ($560).
• The GMH Holden 48-215 (later to be widely, if unofficially, known as the FX) was fully built in Australia. The first one was completed in November 1948, and they were sold for £733 ($1466).
• The Austin Lancer, introduced in 1958 by the British Motor Corporation, sold for £1026 ($2050). It was based on the British Wolseley 1500 model and Australian content was claimed to be 96 per cent.
• The Chrysler Valiant R Series was assembled in Adelaide for imported components. It was priced at £1299 ($2598), and was an immediate success when it was released in January 1962.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Oct 3, 1995

Issued for : The underwater world has become more accessible in the last 30 years. The development of sophisticated diving equipment, such as the research submersible, has enabled scientific research of marine ecosystems to flourish. The advent of commercially available aqualungs has made this alien environment accessible to recreational divers. Others are content to snorkel in shallower reef waters. Developments in underwater photography have further broadcast the attractions of the world down under.

Designer : Gavin Ryan lives on Magnetic Island and knows the Great Barrier Reef intimately. He has completed many stamp designs featuring marine life for different postal administrations, including Australia Post.

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

About : 

• Connecting the Indian, Pacific and Southern Oceans, Australia‘s seas comprise all five of the world’s major temperature zones: tropical, sub-tropical, temperate, subpolar and polar. While borders are more or less non-existent between seas, our coastal marine life can be broadly divided into two: the tropical north and the temperate south.
• Tropical waters are particularly rich in marine life. Indeed, coral reefs are often compared to rainforests in terms of the sheer splendour and diversity of lifeforms. the reefs are actually created by two of the world’s smallest inhabitants. One is a plant: a microscopic single-celled alga, which photosynthesizes sun-light into organic nutrients. the other is an animal: the tiny coral polyp which in turn converts these nutrients into limestone skeletons. The growth, death and eventual compaction of the skeletons forms the basis of a reef. Although some corals can grow up to 30 centimetres a year, reef sediments accrue at a rate of just one millimetre a year.
• Coral reef grows in sunlit lagoons where the water is warm, clear and shallow. reefs are not found in depths of more than 100 metres, or waters where temperatures drop below eighteen degrees.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Jun 8, 1995

Stamp design : John Spatchurst, Sydney

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

About : 

• The Centenary of Cinema is being celebrated internationally in 1995. Film technology arrived in Australia in 1894 and the first films, recording daily life in Australian cities, date from 1896. The stamps highlight some of the different phases in Australia‘s film industry. Part of an early flowering of film production in Australia The story of the Kelly Gang, produced in 1906, was the first continuous narrative film of any significant length.
• Cinesound‘s first sound feature, On Our Selection, was directed by Ken G Hall in 1932. The film broke all box office records at the time. Indeed, it was so popular that three more ‘Dad and Dave‘ films followed. Jedda, directed by Charles Chauvel and released in 1955, was the first narrative colour feature made by an Australian company. The spectacular landscapes were a significant part of the entertainment. Picnic at Hanging Rock is one of the films that marked the ‘renaissance‘ of the Australian film industry in the 1970s. An immediate commercial and critical success, the film won acclaim at Cannes and launched Peter Weir as a major film director.
• The romantic comedy, Strictly Ballroom, represents the success of the contemporary Australian film industry. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, the film was an outstanding box office success during the early 1990s.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Feb 3, 1994

Design : The stamps feature superb images of beautiful blooms. Photographed by Lariane Fonseca of Geelong, Victoria. A book of her flower photographs, If Passion were a Flower …. was published in 1992.

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

About : 

• Thinking of You stamps were introduced in 1990 in response to many requests from members of the public for stamps that would be suitable for special occasions, such as birthdays and weddings. Introduced in 1994 was a special stamp for St. Valentine’s Day, featuring a beautiful red rose, traditional symbol of romantic love.
• St. Valentine’s Day is celebrated as a festival of romance and affection in many countries around the world. Its origins are obscure but some authorities believe they lie in the ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia. During the ceremony, which was held on 15 February to ensure protection from wolves, young men struck people with strips of animal hide. This was also thought to make young women more fertile. Another part of the ceremony, in honour of the goddess Juno, involved a lottery for the selection of mates. Boys and girls who were matched were considered partners for the coming year.
• Other stories connect St. Valentine’s Day to priests of the Roman era.
• One priest secretly married young couples against an edict of Emperor Claudius II banning weddings. Claudius believed unmarried men made better soldiers. Another was an early Christian, gaoled by the Romans for refusing their gods. His followers missed him and managed to smuggle loving notes into his cell.
• The ancient English belief, cited by both Chaucer and Shakespeare, that birds choose their mates on 14 February, is yet another strain in romantic notations connected with this time of the year.
• St. Valentine‘s Day customs over time have shown elements in common with all these stories. The practice of sending loving messages is known to date back at least to the fifteenth century. The Duke of Orleans, for instance, captured at the Battle of Agincourt, sent his wife a rhymed love letter from his cell in the Tower of London in 1415.
• Those who could not write sent tokens to the object of their affection. Eighteenth and nineteenth century shops sold handbooks for the less poetically inspired, containing romantic verses people could copy. Commercial valentines date from the nineteenth century.
• Ladies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, expected gifts rather than verse. Gloves were popular as a particularly expressive and elegant show of affection. In the early nineteenth century, on the other hand, floriography (flower language) became very popular. Bouquets of flowers, all with their particular meanings, became the vogue.
• Many St. Valentine‘s Day customs involved ways single women might learn who their future husbands would be or involved matching members of the opposite sex to be sweethearts or special friends for the coming year. It was customary at one time for a youth to wear the name of his valentine on his sleeve.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Jun 1, 1993

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

About : 

• Trains have played an important part in conquering the vast distances of Australia. From the 1850s tracks radiated inland from the coast and in 1917 trains linked the nation from east to west. For Tasmania‘s railway centenary in 1971 a special train, sometimes hauled by three locomotives, made several journeys around the island State. The streamlined Spirit of Progress, built at Melbourne‘s Newport workshops, was Victoria‘s pride from 1937 to 1954. In a memorable journey the Western Endeavour completed the first steam crossing of the continent on standard gauge in August 1970. Australia’s first diesel and air-conditioned passenger train, the Silver City Comet, ran between Broken Hill and Parkes from 1937 to 1989. The legendary Ghan was once a slow steam train. Now the journey from Port Augusta to Alice Springs is by modern diesel. Passengers from Cairns enjoy spectacular views from the Kuranda Tourist Train on its trip past Barron Falls.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Jan 14, 1993

Designer : Albert Namatjira is one of Australia‘s best-known artists. During his lifetime he painted some 2000 pictures, founding a school of painting that still continues among his relatives and other Aranda people. Two landscapes by Namatjira were reproduced for Australia Day 1993, the International Year for the World’s Indigenous People. Coincidentally, the stamps were issued at the same time as an important exhibition of Hermannsburg art, entitled The Heritage of Namatjira began at the major galleries of Australia. The exhibition is the first serious step of the Hermannsburg watercolour movement and Namatjira as the pioneer artist.

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

Name : Elea Namatjira

Born on Jul 28, 1902 at Hermannsburg Lutheran Mission, near Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

Died on Aug 8, 1959 at near Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

About : 

• Namatjira was born on 28 July 1902 near Hermannsburg Mission. His Aboriginal name was Elea. He attended the mission school, living in the boy’s dormitory, although it appears that he underwent some sort of traditional initiation at the age of thirteen. Albert eloped in 1919 with Ilkalita of the Kukatja people, whose traditional land lay to the west of Aranda country. She was later baptised as Rubina, and the couple had eight children who survived infancy. At the mission Albert took part in craft enterprises designed to help support the mission, as well as working as a blacksmith, stockman and camel driver.
• He was introduced to watercolour painting by Victorian artist, Rex Battarbee. Albert showed a talent and facility for the medium which greatly impressed his teacher. His first one-person show of 41 works was held in 1938 in Melbourne and was a sell-out success. At his first exhibition in Adelaide the following year, the Art Gallery of South Australia purchased a work.
• By 1948 Albert had held nine exhibitions in various capital cities of Australia and he soon became a national celebrity. He was flown to Canberra to meet the Queen; his portrait, by William Dargie, won the Archibald Prize in 1956; and he was made an Associate of the Royal Art Society Gallery in Adelaide. He was enjoying an income of some thousands of pounds per year and in 1957 was granted citizenship.
• Success, fame and money inevitably produced conflicting demands on Albert Namatjira, with tragic consequences. As a citizen, Albert, unlike the rest of his people, had legal access to alcohol. Kinship obligations, however, operated according to different laws and Namatjira was arrested in 1958 for leaving wine where it was accessible to his relatives. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment, and served two months at Papunya. He died just a year later in Alice Springs, aged 57.
• Namatjira‘s life and art must be understood against a context of rapid social change. Albert had been born just fifteen years after the first Christian converts had been baptised. The appropriation of land by pastoralists, the presence of the Mission, the work of Aboriginal converts, the coming of the railway, all were part of a process of great change and upheaval for the Aranda peoples. Drought in the late 1920s created very difficult economic conditions for the Mission and for the increasing numbers of Aboriginal people who were becoming dependent on it. It has been estimated that the Aranda population in 1870 numbered about 2,600. By 1935, only 500 Aranda people remained.
• This tragic loss of population was accompanied by a serious erosion of traditional religious principles. It was in this context of social change and of desperate poverty that Albert Namatjira broke with tradition and began painting in watercolour. In taking this bold step, Namatjira pioneered the way for others.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Apr 9, 1992

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

About : 

• Of the many wine regions around the nation, Australia Post has chosen five which represent the scenic beauty, history and diversity of the wine industry.
• The unique climatic and soil conditions of the Hunter Valley contribute to the distinctive styles of the red and white table wines of the region. The Hunter Valley is perhaps best known for its dry white table wine made from semillon chardonnay grapes.
• South Australia produced more than 54% of Australian wine in 1990. The large output of the historical Barossa Valley vineyards, pioneered by German Lutheran settlers in the 1840s contributes many litres of fine wine to this percentage.
• The warmer climate of Victoria‘s north eastern region produces rich reds and outstanding fortified wines. In recent years, the cooler alpine slopes have been planted to produce delicate styles of table wine.
• Another of the many vineyard areas of South Australia, the Coonawarra region is a narrow strip of red earth over limestone. The region has been described as Australia’s greatest wine district. Coonawarra is the most famous for fine red wines.
• The near coastal region of Margaret River in Western Australia has emerged as a viticultural area only in the course of the past 20 years. Already it has begun yielding some quality red and white table wines.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Jan 2, 1992

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 45 cents each

About : 

• Many of Australia‘s unique species of native wildlife have become extinct since European settlement. More are classed as rare, vulnerable or endangered, their future survival in doubt as natural habitats fall victim to pastoral, industrial and suburban encroachment. The Parma Wallaby (Macropus parma) was thought to have become extinct in Australia in the nineteenth century, but in 1967 a female was discovered and further populations were later found in high rainfall areas on the northern coast of New South Wales. Its restricted range, however, means the species is still vulnerable to extinction.
• Climatic change over the past 10,000 years is thought to have resulted in a contraction of the range of the Ghost Bat (Macroderma gigas). Australia‘s only carnivorous bat, it preys on large insects, frogs, lizards, birds and small mammals. Remaining colonies exist in a patchy but widespread distribution over northern Australia in quite diverse habitats. The species is very sensitive to disturbance, placing the few remaining large populations at risk.
• The long-tailed Dunnart (Sminthopsis longicaudata) is a carnivorous marsupial found in arid, isolated areas of central Western Australia. Its brush-tipped tail, more than twice the length of its body, and striated foot pads, suggest it is an agile climber. Study of the species has only been possible since an expedition by the Western Australian Wildlife Research Centre in 1981 succeeded in trapping eight animals in the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve.
• The rare status of the Little Pygmy-possum (Cercartetus lepidus), Australia‘s smallest possum, probably results from extensive clearing of the forested areas of south-eastern Australia. Although still found in viable numbers in Tasmania, the possible effect of the woodchip industry on its habitat renders it potentially vulnerable.
• One of the rarest and least known of Australian rodents, the Dusky Hopping-mouse (Notomys fuscus) inhabits an area of central Australia covering the north of South Australia and the south-west corner of Queensland. Population density remains low even in favourable locations, although this was not always the case. The explorer, Sturt, reported that Aboriginal hunters captured them by the hundreds. The Dusky Hopping-mouse confines its activities to the flat top of sand dunes during the night, and spends the day away from the heat in an intricate, ventilated nest, a metre or more below the surface of the dune.
• The Squirrel Glider (Petaurus norfolcensis) is similar in appearance to the Sugar Glider, but is twice as large and much rarer. It is likely to have been more affected than the smaller species by the clearing of Australian’s eastern forests for agriculture. Consequently, even remnant vegetation along existing roadsides, creeks and rivers is considered vital for the species’ survival. The remaining examples are sparsely distributed in inland forest areas from south-western Victoria to northern Queensland.
• Other native animals are more ubiquitous. The Short-beaked Echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), for example, is found over most of Australia, in varying habitats, its only real requirement being a ready food supply of ants or termites. Like the Platypus, the Echidna is a monotreme, differing from other mammals in that it is egg-laying. Its covering of long spines offers very good protection and there are no significant predators of the species or competition for its staple food. Although distribution is sparse, the species appears to be in no danger.
• The range of the Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) is limited by the availability of suitable food trees. Its habitat has been diminished by clearance for agriculture, and the species has been protected in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland for many years. If there is no scope for Koalas to spread when numbers are abundant, they are likely to kill their food trees by eating them bare, thereby threatening their own survival.
• The Common Brushtail Possum (Trichosurus vulpecula) is very familiar to most Australians because it has adapted to suburban life. It occurs over an extensive range in Australia and is protected on the mainland.
• The Common Wombat (Vombatus ursinus) generally spends its days in burrows consisting of a complex range of tunnels, some extending 20 metres in length. Although home ranges overlap and burrows are used by more than one animal, social interaction is minimal. European settlement has diminished the range of the Common Wombat, but it still exists in fairly large numbers in parts of south-eastern Australia.
• Illustrations of both issues are by Betina Ogden, a Melbourne illustrator who was first commissioned by Australia Post for the Pets stamps in 1991.

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Issued by Australia

Issued on Jul 12, 1990

Stamp design : Brian Clinton, Melbourne

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 41 cents each

About : 

• The third and final part of the Colonial Collection looks at Australia in the 1870s and 1880s when the economy was undergoing a time of high prosperity. Not all shared in the boom. Slums, bad sanitation and hard manual labour were still the lot of many.
• LAND BOOM
  • Unbridled optimism about the value of land led to suburban expansion in many colonial cities. In Melbourne and Sydney more land was subdivided and auctioned than could be settled for many years to come.
• BUILDING BOOM
  • Increasing wealth created the desire for the extravagant buildings of the boom. Public and commercial offices, mansions and suburban villas were built in a multiplicity of architectural styles.
• INVESTMENT BOOM
  • The stock market, flourishing since the gold rushes, reached new heights as mining and land investment produced new customers.
• RETAIL BOOM
  • Conspicuous consumption was the order of the day. Stores with local and imported luxury goods attracted stylish shoppers who wanted to be seen as much as to see.
• FACTORY BOOM
  • The vigorous economy promoted expansion in manufacturing. Factory workers, however, had to fight for their rights in the face of poor conditions and long hours.

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