In Tropics First

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30919, 27 November 1965, Page 5

In Tropics First

(Specially written for “The Press” by

KENNETH ANTHONY.

yyHERE can Antarctic stamps be obtained from post offices situated in the Tropics? The answer is: in Australia. It is a side-effect of the decision to issue separate stamps for the Australian

Antarctic Territory, the first of which came out in 1957.

Being issued by the Australian Post Office, however, the Antarctic stamps are also valid for postage throughout Australia, and each new stamp for the Antarctic Territory is placed on sale in Australia for a short period when it is first issued.

Although this is another example of issues produced mainly for political reasons, the stamps do find a genuine postal use on the mail dispatched from the permanent Australian bases itn the Antarctic regions—as well as on philatelic mail from Australia.

The first of these Antarctic issues, illustrated here, is a 2s value which ranks as Australia’s largest stamp, being Ifin long excluding the perforations.

The design shows the Australian flag being flown in the Vestfold Hills district of Antarctica in 1954, and also includes a map of the region in relation to Australia.

This stamp has the unusual distinction of not being used in the territory named on it until nearly nine months after its first appearance. The explanation for this curious state of affairs is that the stamp was duly placed on sale in Austral ia when it was ready on March 27, 1957. But, because of the timing of the relief expeditions to the Antarctic bases, the date of issue there did not come until December 11 of that year. Only a few stamps have been produced so far for the Australian Antarctic Territory, but all are of interest. One, a 5d value, shows members of the Shackleton expedition at the South Magnetic Pole in 1909.

Yet the stamps actually used on that famous expedition were not those of Australia at all but of New Zealand—the current Id stamp being specially issued for the purpose in 1908 with an overprint reading “King Edward VII Land.”