stamp bulletin - Australia Post Shop

266 bulletin
In this Bulletin...
Joint issue with Thailand 3
Bush Tucker 6
International Panoramas II 11
International Greetings 13
Battle for Australia PSE 15
New Collector coins 16
Seven Seas 19
Post Master Gallery 20
© Copyright 2002 Australian Postal
Corporation. All rights reserved
Australia Post stamp designs and philatelic
products are subject to copyright and may
not be reproduced without permission. All
applications for the reproduction of Australian
stamps should be made in writing to:
The Manager – Philatelic Group
Australia Post
GPO Box 1777
MELBOURNE VIC 3001
Fax: 03 9204 7744
ABN 28 864 970 579
The Australian Stamp Bulletin is produced by
the Australia Post Philatelic Group and printed
by Franklin Web, Sunshine VIC.
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been included in good faith, on the basis that the
products will be available for sale, until stock sold out,
at the prices stated, and in the manner described.
To the best of Australia Post’s knowledge, all
information contained in this Bulletin was
correct at the time of printing. Australia Post
will not, however, be held responsible for any
inadvertent errors or oversights, or any change to
information which may occur after publication.
Availability of specific stamps and
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outside the control of Australia Post.
Prices are GST inclusive.
Visit us at auspost.com.au/stamps
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Dear Readers,
Some of you have written to ask if Australia Post would have
a special Year of the Outback issue. We considered it, but
decided against adding an issue to the program. Instead we
have dedicated the three issues already planned for 2002 –
that fit within the outback theme– to the Year of the
Outback. I refer to Nature of Australia-Desert (June); Albert
Namatjira birth centenary (July) and completing the
triptych in this Bulletin with Bush Tucker (September).
Indigenous Australians have lived off bush tucker for
thousands of years. Now everyone is catching on. You’ll find
it in specialist restaurants in major cities and in signature
dishes in restaurants throughout Australia.
I think you will find the design of the stamps, by Janet
Boschen of the Australia Post Design Studio, both colourful
and fascinating. Janet is the most experienced designer in
our studio and her designs are always exciting, imaginative
and of the highest quality. Her use of the tête-bêche format
adds another level on which the truly striking images can be
appreciated.
If you are one of our readers with concerns about double
cancellation of your finely cancelled covers. I am pleased to
say that as we prepare this Bulletin we are starting a trial of
‘carrier envelopes’. We hope they will solve the problem of
double cancellations yet still allow modern handling and
processing of the post.
Sample carrier envelopes have been distributed to stamp
clubs and organisations. We hope to have analysed feedback
from the trial and be able to announce the results in the next
Stamp Bulletin.
This is my last Letter to Readers, as I will soon retire from
Australia Post. For the past decade I have been privileged to
have been responsible for Australia’s stamps. I would like to
thank all collectors who have written to me over that period.
I started this letter as a way of encouraging you to write to
me with your suggestions, concerns and comments. It may
not be obvious, but every one of you who contacted me has
– in some way – shaped what we have done, and how we
have done it. I have made many friends through philately
and I wish to thank them, and collectors generally, for the
support they have given to Australian stamps.
Stamps truly are, and will remain, real national treasures.
David Maiden, Manager, Philatelic Group
6 August 2002
AUSTRALIA-THAILAND joint issue
Diplomatic Relations 1952 - 2002
This joint issue celebrates 50 years of formal
diplomatic relations between Australia and
Thailand. Waterlilies are found in both
countries and the flower’s traditional
associations with beauty, enlightenment and
renewal make it a fitting symbol to mark these
diplomatic relations.
Waterlilies produce spectacular flowers,
which can last from a few days to a week. The
wonderfully showy flowers may be fragrant.
Some open during the day and close at night,
others the opposite.
The stamps
The stamps and miniature sheet are
beautifully illustrated by Thaneth
Ponchaiwong, of the Communications
Authority of Thailand Philatelic Department
45c Nymphaea immutabilis
Nymphaea immutabilis grows in northern
Australia, close to the coast right across the
top down to the Tropic of Capricorn on the
east coast. Currently there is no common
name for this species.
The young Nymphaea fruit is pulled beneath
the surface by the coiling flower stalk and
develops underwater into a spongy berry with
many seeds that are enclosed in arils. When
ripe, up to 2000 seeds are released from each
fruit.
Young seeds float because the arils contain
air pockets. The seeds are then dispersed by
water currents or by water birds that eat them.
As the arils become waterlogged, the seeds sink
into the mud to germinate that same year or
wait for the next wet season floods.
The seeds generally only live for a year or
two. The plant also sometimes spreads by
sprouting from the bulbs. The flat round leaves
have a waxy water-repellent upper side. The
underside, however, seems to cling to the water
by surface tension.
$1.00 Nelumbo nucifer
With a symmetrical, exquisitely beautiful
flower, Nelumbo nucifera, commonly known
as the East Indian lotus or sacred lotus, is an
aquatic perennial native to northern
Australia, Papua New Guinea and South-East
Asia and grows in lowland wetlands. In
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