Take a cue from Australia

Australia Post is a fine organisation for Sri Lanka’s Philatelic Bureau to take lessons from in the release of meaningful stamps. One has only to look at the array of stamps issued by Australia Post on a regular basis to realise what a lot of planning goes into the whole operation.

To give an example, in the first four months of this year, Australia Post released 33 stamps covering a wide range of subjects. It obviously needs careful planning to produce and issue such a varied lot within such a short period of time. To begin with subject selection has to be done cautiously. Suitable illustrations have to be chosen. Attractive designs have to be created. And the stamps have to be printed to get high quality.

That’s not all. Australia Post issue several other products to go with each stamp release. Generally, with each release, a first day cover (a common item which every country produces for each release), a mini sheet carrying the full set of stamps mounted on an attractive sheet, a combination of the first day cover and mini sheet, a maxi card issued as a set with a separate card for each stamp, and a stamp pack are made available.

A souvenir sheet, a prestige booklet and a gutter strip (with design) are among other items released depending on each issue. All this provide a wide choice for the stamp collector. Thus Australia is a boon for the collector. A bi-monthly stamp bulleting is issued for the stamp collectors to know in advance what’s in the pipeline. The attractive booklet printed in full colour gives detailed descriptions of each new stamp and other material. All are well illustrated. The collectors can book online and get whatever they need.

The recent issues include a set of 10 stamps on Australian legends of music, five each on landscape paintings from the National Gallery of Australia, Australian Botanic Gardens and Bush Babies, and four stamps featuring Australian Antarctic Territory Mountains. There were two commemorative issues; one on the Centenary of Canberra (two stamps) and the other on the Diamond Jubilee Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II (also two stamps). All these are made available for a limited period and are withdrawn on specified date made known when the stamps are released.

Canberra, Australia’s national capital celebrated is Centenary on 12 March. The selection of Canberra as the capital was a compromise between rivals Sydney and Melbourne. The selection was made in 1908 but the foundation had been laid on 12 March 1913. The then Governor-General’s wife, Lady Denman had stood on the foundation stones and announced that the name would be Canberra. An international competition was held for the design of the city. Canberra is the home to some of Australia’s most important buildings and national institutions including the country’s Federal Parliament.

Although the Diamond Jubilee Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, falls on 2 June, Australia Post released two stamps on 9 April. It was over 12 months after she ascended the throne that the Queen’s coronation was held. Prime Ministers and leading citizens of the Commonwealth countries and representatives of foreign states joined hundreds of thousands of Britons and an estimated 200,000 tourists descended upon London for the coronation.

The stamps feature her portrait; a Cecil Beaton photograph taken in 1953, and the ornate gold state coach in which she rode from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. A description of the ceremony states: During the coronation ceremony, Elizabeth swore the coronation oath whereby she undertook to rule according to law, to exercise justice with mercy and to maintain the Church of England. She was 10 anointed, blessed and consecrated and crowned by the archbishop, at which point trumpets sounded, the Abbey bells pealed, and guns at the Tower of London saluted.

Apart from so many stamp releases, Australia Post has also been busy getting ready for the largest stamp exhibition to take place in the southern hemisphere this month in Melbourne.

Rear stamps preserved by Australia Post will be on show along with ‘never released’ drawings, proofs and colour trials used for the planning and development of the Australia’s first stamp issue ‘Kangaroo and the Map’.