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Concept
Postage stamps and postal history of Australia
Summary
This is an overview of the postage stamps and postal history of Australia.
The six self-governing Australian colonies that formed the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901 operated their own postal service and issued their own stamps – see articles on the systems on New South Wales (first stamps issued 1850), Victoria (1850), Tasmania (1853), Western Australia (1854), South Australia (1855) and Queensland (1860). 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 Postmaster-General's Department on 1 March 1901, which took over all the colonial mail systems and the then-current colony stamps. These stamps continued to be valid and became de facto Commonwealth stamps. Some of these stamps continued to be used for some time following the introduction in 1913 of the Commonwealth's uniform postage stamp series. These stamps continued to be valid for postage until 14 February 1966 when the introduction of 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.
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