Australia's First Airmail Stamp

1929

Although there were requests from the Australian public for airmail stamps as early as 1919, the Post Office did nothing about it until 1926 when the development of an airmail service between Adelaide and Perth was being considered. Arrangements were made in 1928 - at the same time that tenders were invited for the airmail service - for preliminary stamp desings to be prepared. The final desgin was the work of R.A. Harrison. Melbourne artist Harold Herbert was selected to finalise the design. On the 20 May 1929 the first Airmail stamp was released. In my view its a stunner. The plane depicted in the stamp is a De Havilland DH66. This type of plane was used in the new east-west Airmail service...

1929 Airmail

As is usual in the process of creating a stamp, many designs were considered. This is a facsimile of one such design...

An unadopted design

Technical Details:
Issued: 20 May 1929
Designed by R.A. Harrison and Harold Herbert
Recess-printed on unwatermarked paperand issued in sheets of 80, perf. 11 single-line.
Total number issued: 3,720,560
(a) In sheets of 80, 2,972,960. "OS" punctured approx. 180,000.
(b) In booklets containing 12 stamps: 1930: 50,000 booklets (600,000 stamps). 1935: 12,300 booklets (147,600 stamps).

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