8th June 2022: George Miller, Australia

George Miller is an Australian filmmaker. He is best known as creator of the science fiction movie franchise Mad Max, but he also created children's movies like Happy Feet and Babe.

Thank You very much Dilshani!

Australia: National Gallery of Victoria

On 22nd April I got a postcard from Australia. 

It shows a painting by William Turner from the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria. The National Gallery of Victoria was founded in 1861. It is Australia's oldest, largest and most visited art museum and is ranked among the leading art museums in the World. Its encyclopedic art collection is housed at two locations in Melbourne.

The card was sent with three stamps, but only two survived the journey. They got cancelled in Melbourne's General Post Office.

Thank You very much Jingdan!

Australia: Year of the Ox

On 10th March I got three postcards: one from Australia, one from Austria and one from Italy.

The card from Australia is the official Year of the Ox card of the Australian Post.

The card is prepaid, but...

... was added with one of the three Year of the Ox stamps (issued 08-01-2021) and got cancelled with a nice special postmark from Melbourne's Chinatown, the longest continuous Chinese settlement in the Western World and the oldest Chinatown in the Southern Hemisphere. I really like these stamps. They are embossed and shine if they are held against the light.

Thank You very much Jingdan!

Just in like in Macau I also ordered these stamps directly from Australian Post in mint condition. Also like Macau Australia changed the design of the Chinese New Year stamps, as actually last year a different design was announced for the following years. Unfortunately I do not know why.

Australia: Allosaurus

On 14th September I got a postcard from Australia. 

It is a maxicard about the Allosaurus. The stamp is from a set of six and was issued on the 1st October 1993, just three months after Jurassic Park was released. Canada and New Zealand issued dinosaur stamps on the same day as well. 

Like all Australian maxicards this one is prepaid.

 Thank You very much Jingdan!

Australia: Indian Pacific

One Friday I got four postcards: one from Australia, one from China and two from Germany.

The card from Australia shows the Indian Pacific. The Indian Pacific is an Australian passenger rail service that operates between Sydney on the Pacific Ocean and Perth on the Indian Ocean and thus crosses the Australian continent from East to West. As such it is one of the few truly transcontinental trains in the World and is considered to be one of the World's great rail journeys. The train's route also includes the World's longest straight stretch of railway track. The line was made possible due to the conversion of different gauges, which earlier has presented an extremely difficult problem for rail transport in Australia. Thanks to it the journey from Sydney to Perth now only takes roughly three days. For the first time the two cities were connected by the line in February 1970 and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of this Transcontinental Railway Australian Post issued a stamp on 11th February 2020. This card, which shows the inaugural Indian Pacific passenger train, is actually the maxicard of the stamp.

Like all Australian maxicards this one is prepaid.

Thank You very much Jingdan!

Australia: Year of the Rat

On 24th January I got six postcards: one from Australia, two from the Philippines, one from Russia, one from Hong Kong and one from Macau.

The card from Australia is about the Year of the Rat.

The card is prepaid and was cancelled with a special Year of the Rat postmark.

Thank You very much Jenny!

One day before I got this card I also got my stamp order from Australia, which included the three Australian stamps about the Year of the Rat in mint condition.

Australia: Koala

Last Thursday I got a postcard from Australia.

It shows a Koala. The Koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. The leaves of eucalypt trees make up most of their diet. While they have few natural predators and parasites, they are highly endangered by habitat destruction caused by agriculture, urbanisation, droughts and associated bushfires. In the early 20th century the animal was also heavily hunted for its fur, until large-scale cullings in Queensland resulted in a public outcry that initiated a movement to protect the species. The Koala is today worldwide recognised as a symbol of Australia.

The card is a maxicard. The stamp is from a set of six and was issued on 12th May 1994.

The card is prepaid.

Thank You very much Evelyn!

Australia: Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne

On 9th November I got four postcards: two from Australia and two from Germany.

One of the cards from Australia shows the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. The Royal Exhibition Building was built between 1879 and 1880 to house the Melbourne International Exhibition of 1880, the eighth World's fair and the first official World's Fair in the Southern Hemisphere. Later it hosted the even larger Centennial International Exhibition in 1888 and the formal opening of the first Parliament of Australia in 1901. As one of the last remaining major 19th-century exhibition buildings in the World, it is an important testimony to the international exhibition movement between 1851 and 1915 and is also representative of the money and pride Victoria had in the 1870s. Since 2004 are the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The card was signed during the Postcrossing Meet-up in Melbourne.
The card is prepaid and was added with two other stamps:
Farming Australia (from set of five) (issued 20-03-2012)
Fishes of the Reef (from set of five) (issued 21-06-2010)

Thank You very much Helen!

Australia: Kookaburra

On 9th November I got four postcards: two from Australia and two from Germany.

One of the cards from Australia shows a Kookaburra. The Kookaburra is a kingfisher native to eastern Australia. Its territorial call is a distinctive laugh that is often delivered by several birds at the same time.

The card is a maxicard. The stamp is from a set of four and was issued on 12th August 1993.

The card is prepaid.

Thank You very much Evelyn!

Australia: Parkes Observatory

On 9th August I got two postcards from Australia.

One of them shows the Parkes Observatory. The Parkes Observatory is a radio telescope observatory completed in 1961. It is one of the most important observatories in Australia and has the second largest telescop in the Southern Hemisphere. In 1969 it was one of several radio antennae used to receive live television images of the first Moon Landing.

The card is a maxicard. The stamp is from a set of four and was issued on 16th July 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Moon Landing.

The card is prepaid.

Thank You very much Evelyn!

Australia: Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station

On 9th August I got two postcards from Australia.

One of them shows Australia's former Prime Minister John Gorton at the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station. The Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station was a NASA Earth station near Canberra, which was instrumental to the Apollo Program. It was opened in 1967 and closed in 1981. In 1969 the first steps on the Moon were transmitted from Honeysuckle Creek.

The card is a maxicard. The stamp is from a set of four and was issued on 16th July 2019 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first Moon Landing.

The card is prepaid.

Thank You very much Evelyn!

Australia: Kangaroo and Map Stamps

On Monday I got a postcard from Australia.

It shows a sheet of £2 Kangaroo and Map Stamps. The Kangaroo and Map stamp series was the first stamp series issued in Australia to be used in the whole country. It was issued twelve years after the Federation of Australia on the 2nd January 1913 and replaced the stamps of the former six separate British self-governing colonies. If you want to know more about these stamps check out this video on YouTube.

The card is a maxicard. The stamp is from a set of five about Australia's favourite stamps and was issued on the 26th June 2009.

The card is prepaid.

Thank You very much Evelyn!

cover from Malaysia

On Friday I got a cover from Malaysia. 

Stamps:

National Day Celebrations (from set of two) (issued 31-08-2018)

State Definitive - Putrajaya (from set of six) (issued 24-11-2009)

Inside was a written and stamped postcard from Australia.

It shows a map of Australia.

Stamp:
Cruise Ships (from set of two) (issued 18-09-2018)
with a special postmark about the centenary of Poland's independence

Thank You very much Chui Choo!

Australia: Kakadu National Park

Last Saturday I got four postcards: one from Australia, one from Italy, one from Germany and one from Ireland.

The card from Australia shows an aerial view of the Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. The Kakadu National Park was established in 1979. It is known for its unique flora and fauna and its important archaeological and ethnological sites. Since 1981 is the Kakadu National Park on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Stamps:
Basket Weaving on the Cocos Keeling Islands (from set of three) (issued 26-06-2018)
Frogs (from set of four) (issued 10-07-2018)
Fauna (from set of six) (issued 06-03-2006)
Reef Safari (from set of five) (issued 01-08-2018)

Thank You very much Helena!

Australia: Humphrey B. Bear

On Tuesday I got six postcards: one from Australia, two from New Zealand, one from Japan, my first card from the Cocos Keeling Islands and one from Canada.

The card from Australia shows Humphrey B. Bear. Humphrey B. Bear is the main character of the Australian children's television series Here's Humphrey, which was produced between 1965 and 2009. It is one of the most successful programs for pre-schoolers in Australia and one of the longest running children’s television programs in the World.

The card is a maxicard. The stamp is from a set of five stamps about Children's TV and was issued on 6th May 1999.

The card is prepaid and was added with another stamp:
Gold Medal Winners of the Summer Olympics 2000 (from set of sixteen) (issued 17-09-2000)

Thank You very much Chui Choo!

My Stamp Order from Australia

Last Saturday I got my stamp order from Australia. Among the stamps I ordered were this year's Australian stamps about the Centenary of World War I (issued 02-10-2018). 

John Monash was an Australian civil engineer and military commander of the World War I. After having served in Egypt and Gallipoli, he became commander of the Australian Corps in May 1918. He was a meticulous planner and brilliant tactician and planned the Battle of Amiens on 8 August 1918, which expedited the end of the war. After the war he was knighted. John Monash died on 8th October 1931. He is considered to be one of the best Allied generals of the World War I and the most famous commander in Australian history.

After the Battle of Amiens the Entente saw a rapid series of victories against the German Empire, which became known as Hundred Days Offensive. This became the beginning of the end of the Western Front. 

On 11th November 1918 the Entente and the German Empire signed the Armistice of Compiègne. This armistice finally ended the war on the Western Front. The war was costly for Australia. Around 156000 Australians were wounded and 60000 died. Many of the fallen are interred in foreign soil. After the war Australia had another problem, as around 167000 troops had to be repatriated. Once again it was John Monash, whose brilliant leadership ensured that until early 1920 everyone came home.

I also ordered a souvenir sheet about the Year of the Dog (issued 08-01-2018), two maxicards about children's books (issued 21-08-2018) and other stamps that you can see on my stamp blog.